She first attended Pennsylvania's Bryn Mawr College from 1903 to 1904, then graduated from Oberlin College in Ohio, where she later returned to speak many times. In 1908, at the age of 23, she finished her education and received a Ph.D. in philosophy from the University of Chicago with a thesis later published as "The Social Psychology of Prayer". She supported child welfare, and traveled around speaking about it. When she came toSeattle to speak about it in May 1914, more than 6,000 people came per day. At least 40,000 people came on her last day in Seattle. 