Wangari Muta Maathai was born in 1940 in Kenya. Her education, however, would take her around the world. Maathai attended Mount St. Scholastica College in Kansas. She earned a degree in science in 1964. From there, she went to the University of Pittsburgh in Pennsylvania. She earned a degree in life science in 1966. Maathai continued her studies in Germany and Nairobi. She would later become a professor at the University of Nairobi.