Congratulations to Allie Korbey '13 and Chelsea O'Neil '14! They were selected to be ANNpower Fellows, which enables them to participate in the inaugural ANNpower Leadership Forum in Washington, DC this summer.

A lifelong performer, Allie Korbey '13 says that theater has "helped me grow up, and taught me everything I know about communicating." Using skills gleaned at the ANNpower retreat, she hopes to create programs that introduce performance techniques to inner-city schoolchildren—a cause rendered especially urgent, she says, "in light of the fact that funding for the arts in public schools has been cut so drastically." For years, Allie has worked with TADA!, a Manhattan-based youth theater company, and she devoted a portion of her ANNpower application to BC's late theater director Marlene Clary, whom Allie says "was like a surrogate mother to me."

Chelsea O'Neil '14 hopes to become a lawyer, and (in the more immediate future) to educate teenagers about their voting rights. "A year ago my sister asked me if I knew who was in office in my region," says Chelsea. "I didn't. It was a wake-up call, because those are the politicians who are affecting us most directly. If you have a problem, you can't just go to the White House." Chelsea is interested in exploring the possibilities of the teen magazine format—which now contain "mostly fluff" but which she believes could become forums for serious political and cultural dialogue. Chelsea has been involved with Law Enforcement Explorers, a NYPD program designed to educate youths about law enforcement, since she was seven.

Despite their roles as burgeoning leaders, when Allie and Chelsea learned they'd won ANNpower fellowships, they each instinctively turned to a strong female role model for guidance: their mothers. Allie says, "I was in Nice on the Berkeley Carroll French trip, and saw on my phone that I'd won. I immediately checked with my mom. Any time I read something that exciting, I have to check with my mom to make sure I'm reading it right." "Me too!" laughs Chelsea. "I was in the Berkeley Carroll library when I got the e-mail. I didn't even read it. I just sent it to my mom."