Name: Anna
Age: 13
Location: MD
Chosen for: I AM MALALA
Anna is a teen on a mission to empower and inspire. She is passionate about motivating people to do amazing things, take risks, and get involved—with a focus on accessibility, inclusion, and equity. She is a fearless public speaker and enjoys creating motivational videos for her Instagram channel. She’s also passionate about social justice issues and looks for ways to serve her community.
Anna loves reading and can easily spend hours lost inside a bookstore or library. She enjoys learning about American History, Art History, and Literature. Anna also plays competitive chess, which she started in 2016. Since then, she’s played in international-level tournaments and was featured in a CNN mini-documentary highlighting her participation in the World Junior Chess Championship for Players with Disabilities. Recently Anna started volunteering to teach beginner chess lessons with Chess Girls DC.
She’s currently starring in the feel-good television show, Operation Awesome, featuring a group of teens traveling across the country to help make a difference in local communities.
What Eva has to say about Anna:
Anna joined classes at OTA this past year and hit the ground running. She is passionate, knowledgeable, hardworking and, most of all, a friend to everyone in her classes. Her work, simply put, is not only creative but amazing. She puts 110% of herself into everything she does. Her project for her class I am Malala was hands down, over-the-top impressive; however, this is characteristic of Anna. She always goes the extra mile (or ten miles).
Eva Goldstein-Meola, OTA
