the staff at the Blackwell's dispensary. Blackwell arranged for Zakrzewska's entry into the Western Reserve University's medical program that was unique in accepting female students. With her acceptance, she had to be willing to learn sufficient English. As she was planning to move out west to attend the program, she ran into further obstacles. She was one of only four women out of two hundred students attending the medical school. Two of the other women, Dr. Cordelia A. Greene, of Castile, New York and Dr. Elizabeth Griselle, of Salem, Ohio, would become life-long friends. No one wanted to share an apartment with a female doctor, so Blackwell arranged for temporary housing at the home of Caroline Severance. The men on campus welcomed her with disgust and hostility. They petitioned the institution to refuse to enroll the women after the winter term. Despite the bumpy road, she obtained her medical degree in March 1856 at the age of twenty-seven. After receiving her degree in medicine, she returned to New York to find a job. Though it was difficult to find a job as a midwife, she hoped that the search would be easier with a medical degree. She quickly found out that it was no different as a woman. As a lady "doctor," her presence in public received scornful looks and Zakrzewska was quickly ostracized by the public. Eventually, Elizabeth Blackwell used the back parlor of her house as a doctor's office where Zakrzewska hung her physician's shingle for the first time. The tiresome rejections and repeated obstacles to practicing medicine that Blackwell and Zakrzewska encountered sparked the idea of creating their own infirmary to meet the medical demands of women and children. They traveled together and held events to raise money for their grand idea. On May 1, 1857, the New York Infirmary for Women and Children was in business. By 1859, the New York Infirmary stood on a solid foundation of funds with a growing number of patients. A typical day for Zakrzewska began at 5:30 a.m. and did not end until 11:30 p.m. Zakrzewska traveled to Boston as her desire for a greater challenge grew. She fell in love with the city and was offered an appointment as Professor of Obstetrics and Diseases of Women and Children as well as to serve as head of a new clinical program at the Boston Female Medical College. Zakrzewska found that