From a child born in Oakland to immigrant parents, to Vice President of the United States, Kamala Harris represents many ‘firsts.’ First woman Vice President. First Black Vice President. First Asian-American Vice President. It is fair to say that Joe Biden may have won the 2020 election, but it’s Harris who has attracted global attention.

Family is a cornerstone of American values and Harris’s multicultural backstory has shaped her from a young age. Her Indian-born mother was a breast cancer researcher at the University of California and her Jamaican father was a Stanford economist. Both were immigrant doctorate candidates at UC Berkeley and were actively involved in the civil rights movement. "They laid the path for me," she said.

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After her parents’ divorce, she and her younger sister were raised by their single mother. Harris grew up embracing her mother’s Indian culture but living a proudly African American life. She spent her teenage years in Montreal, where her mother was teaching. After graduation, she moved back to the U.S. and earned a political science and economics degree at the prestigious and historically Black college, Howard University, before returning to California to study law at the Hastings College of Law.

Fresh out of school, she joined the Alameda County District Attorney's Office in 1990, focusing on sex crimes. In 2003, she became the first person of color ever elected to the position of district attorney of San Francisco. And, in 2010, she was elected the first woman and the first Black person to serve as California’s attorney general.

Harris’s ambitions didn’t stop there. In 2019, she announced that she would be running for president in the 2020 election, eventually being picked by Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden as his running mate. Her story resonated with many American voters who were hungry for better representation in the U.S. political landscape, and the excitement was palpable as she stepped onto the platform to take her oath as Vice President.

Harris has faced challenges along the way, and will no doubt encounter more. But she has truly shattered the glass ceiling, and credits her mother for fueling her unparalleled work ethic and desire for change. "My mother taught us the importance of a good education. She taught us the good old-fashioned value of hard work. She taught us don't let anyone tell you who you are. You tell them who you are. She taught us not only to dream but to do.”