Brandi Moore
Washington-Lee High School
The mail carrier created a well-worn path delivering happy news to Brandi Moore’s house this spring. The Washington-Lee High School senior’s mailbox verily overflowed with college acceptance letters from every one of the 13 colleges to which she applied—including five Ivy League schools (Cornell, Brown, Penn, Columbia and Harvard).
She graduated as a National Achievement Scholarship Semifinalist with a 4.35 GPA and a full load of AP classes. But the down-to-earth Columbia Heights resident is equally proud of the fact that she has played recreational-league basketball with the same team of girls since fifth grade.
Photo by Michael Ventura
Moore, 18, now plans to study life sciences and public health—interests that stem, in part, from her volunteer work with Arlington County’s Environmental Services Department. For four years, she collected chemical and biological data from a stream to help the county track water quality changes and gauge pollution levels. “The numbers have been good,” she notes.
Also on her résumé: three years as a student actor with Signature Theatre’s “Signature in the Schools” program, where she went for meaty, dramatic roles. Her favorite production? Revolution, she says, referring to the play she performed in during her sophomore year. “It focused on the Arab Spring and was a beautifully written script. I played the sister of a man who set himself on fire in protest of the government.”
“Brandi not only learns the information inside and out to give honest and meaningful performances as an actor,” says Matt Strote, a drama teacher at Signature Theatre, “she also incorporates it into her whole being. If you ask her to update you on the current situation in the Middle East, she will spout off three articles she read that morning about the latest developments.”
That hunger for knowledge will no doubt benefit Moore this fall when she heads to her college of choice: Harvard. —Jenny Sokol