She was encouraged to find a husband instead of attending university, but matriculated at Brooklyn College, where she began to work with Abraham Maslow.
[1] After her graduate studies, Kendler moved to Washington, D.C., and began her career in the Army Air Force Selection Program.
[1] Her major research began with a study of discrimination learning in young children to compare their behavior to adult humans and rats.
Her work received widespread attention and funding from the National Science Foundation, and she was summarily promoted to associate professor in 1959, and she earned tenure in 1960.
Her work there included significant mentorship, extensive publication, and research on the neurophysiology of cognitive development.