CNN’s Soledad O’Brien visits Chattanooga Girls Leadership Academy

Soledad with seventh grade students

CNN anchor, special correspondent and author, Soledad O'Brien, visited with students at the Chattanooga Girls Leadership Academy recently after giving the keynote address at the 2011 Odyssey Luncheon and Awards honoring local women and girls for accomplishments in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM).

O'Brien told the students she never took classes in journalism and started out focusing on pre-medical science, thinking she was going to be a doctor, while attending Harvard University.

Eventually deciding to focus her career on journalism, O'Brien found her first job combining the two backgrounds working with a medical reporter in television.

O'Brien spent time Tuesday afternoon dropping in to several classes throughout the school, stopping for longer question and answer visits with 6th, 9th and 10th grade classrooms.

The school's goal is to provide girls and young women in grades 6 to 10 with a rigorous college preparatory education focused on math, science, and technology in a supportive environment.The leadership academy is Tennessee's first and only all-girls, public charter school.

"Every day there are opportunities to do great things or to do miserable things. Do you want to be the person that does kind things today? You have to use your voice. That is leadership. Interviewing is a great skill no matter what you decide to do. You should ask people about their experiences so you can learn. Find people who inspire you, steal a little nugget of what they do, then move on."

O'Brien was in Chattanooga to present the 2011 Supernova Award at the Odyssey Luncheon to Dr. Cecelia Wigal, assistant dean in the college of engineering and computer science and professor of engineering at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga.
The inspiration for the Supernova award came from the Young Women's Leadership Academy Foundation work as the founding sponsor of the leadership academy, according to a press release. The Supernova recognizes the exceptional achievements of women working in the STEM career fields in Hamilton County.


CNN’s Soledad O’Brien visits Chattanooga Girls Leadership Academy | Nooga.com