Eunice attended the Troy Female Seminary, later renamed the Emma Willard School, from 1836–1838. Students at the seminary were permitted to attend a nearby science college, which was where Foote learned foundational chemistry and biology. There she was influenced by the textbooks of Almira Hart Lincoln Phelps, Emma Willard's sister, who was a female pioneer of women in science, a botany expert, and the third female member of the AAAS.[7]