With President Obama's nomination this week, 54-year-old Judge Sonia Sotomayor comes one step closer to making history not only as the third female on the Supreme Court, but also as the first Hispanic to ascend to this level.  Regardless of your political leanings or opinions on her rulings, we can all agree that this is an important milestone for women.  What is particularly remarkable to me is how much she had to overcome to achieve this goal.  She lost her father when she was nine and was raised by her mother in the projects of the South Bronx.  While her father had only a third grade education and did not speak English, her mother, who was a nurse, made education a priority for Sonia, who became fluent in English at age 10.  Her early heroes were Nancy Drew and Perry Mason.  Unfortunately, her Type 1 Diabetes prevented her from pursuing a career as a detective.  So law became her passion.  She not only achieved that goal, but did so with degrees from both Princeton and Yale.  She went on to serve as Assistant DA in NY as well as work in private practice prior to her nomination to the federal bench in the early 90s.

To learn more about Sonia, check out the overview found on Wikipedia or The Huffington Post.