Yesterday afternoon, the Emily Couric Leadership Forum presented its 2010 Women’s Leadership award to former Newsweek and New York Times columnist and novelist Anna Quindlen. The Forum also awarded a $20,000 scholarship to Western Albemarle High School senior Sarah Chacko during a luncheon at the Omni Hotel.
The scholarship and award honor the life and public service work of former Virginia Senator Emily Couric, who passed away from pancreatic cancer in 2000. Emily Couric’s family—including her sister, current CBS Evening News anchor Katie Couric—attended the event.
Author and local resident John Grisham introduced Quindlen, and remarked that she was only the third woman in history to write a column on the New York Times op-ed page, as well as the only writer to have books on three separate bestseller lists simultaneously. Quindlen then addressed the audience on the changing status of a woman from one generation to the next.
“As a child, I saw no women in positions of authority, but that’s not the world the girls I had lunch with this afternoon see,” she said. While Quindlen said women are not equally represented in any area of leadership, she added that a woman’s ability to identify with the common citizen and to base success on what feels right in their heart is part of the reason why female leaders are so effective.
After Quindlen’s address, the scholarship awarded its scholarship, presented annually to a Charlottesville area high school senior who displays potential to become a passionate female leader, to Sarah Chacko. At WAHS, Chacko helped form the school’s athletic leadership council (which the Virginia High School League shaped its own program after), and is a member of the honor and executive councils. Chacko said she hopes to pursue a career in medicine and work with international public health organizations, such as Doctors without Borders.
