“I think she came here with a very strong political knowledge,” said Gonzalez-Pose, who said she did not know Sirleaf as a student.

“She was very much somebody with a solid technical knowledge of what development entails,” she said.

Sirleaf graduated with a Masters in Public Administration from the Kennedy School in 1971.

After graduation, Sirleaf returned once again to Liberia, where she became assistant minister of finance and delivered her pivotal high school commencement speech.

She quickly rose through the ranks, but was forced to go into exile after surviving a military coup in 1980. During this period, she worked for the World Bank in Washington D.C. and Citibank in Kenya.

In 1985, Sirleaf returned to Liberia to run for vice president on a ticket that opposed the existing regime. Her ticket lost to Samuel Doe, who became president of Liberia. Later, after criticizing his regime in one of her speeches, Sirleaf was convicted of sedition and imprisoned for a month. She was later pardoned.

She would again be imprisoned—this time for eight months—in the wake of an attempted coup against the Doe regime.

Exiled during the First Liberian Civil War, Sirleaf returned to her country to run for president in 1997. She placed second in a controversial election.

She was exiled once again during the Second Liberian Civil War, but returned once again to Liberia to run for president in 2005.

This time, she was victorious, beating soccer player George Weah in a disputed run-off election.

When she took office in 2006, Sirleaf became the first elected female head of state in Africa.

During her presidency, Sirleaf has dramatically reduced Liberia’s foreign debt, cutting the foreign deficit from $4.9 billion in 2006 to $1.7 billion in 2010, according to Newsweek.

She has also established a compulsory public education program, instituted a new supreme court, and increased access to health care and nutrition.

Sirleaf is called “Ma Ellen” by some Liberians, who say that she is the beloved mother of their nation.

But Sirleaf’s presidency has not been without controversy.