Scholarship Recipient Continues to Wow Young Audiences While Pursuing an Engineering Degree
Annina as The Little Mermaid
The Casey Feldman Foundation is proud of its scholarship recipients and is always happy to follow their continuing successes in academics and social action. Annina Baker was the recipient of the third annual Casey Feldman Foundation Cappies Scholarship awarded in 2013. She received the scholarship at the local “Awards Night” for students engaged, like Casey was, in theatrical productions at 39 participating Philadelphia area high schools. A versatile actress and drama critic in high school, she was nominated for the scholarship by her Upper Merion High School English and drama teacher Laura Ebersole. Her social action volunteer activity was a “Princess Project” which blended her love of theater with charity as a way to entertain sick and special needs children.
Cinderella meets her fans
Annina, is currently a junior Mechanical Engineering student at Villanova University in Villanova, PA. She reports that she continues to play the Little Mermaid and to coordinate events for the Princess Project. Now a Lower Merion community activity Princess Project involves 20 students and alumni of Upper Merion High School who dress as princesses, princes and fairies to perform a specially written musical and dance show for sick and special needs children. After the show, the performers host a meet and greet with the audiences.
The underwater robot constructed by Annina and her classmates for the Villanova Battlebot Competition
In addition to her “Project” and her studies, Annina is Student Manager for Villanova’s Marine Advance Technology Education Program. In that role, she constructs a competition area and obstacles and establishes event logistics for a high school student competition hosted by her school. In addition, she is Vice President of Public Relations and Recruitment for the Villanova Chapter of the National Society for Collegiate Scholars, a member of the Society of Women Engineers, the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME) and a recipient of a Villanova Blue White Scholarship for 2015-16.
An aspiring Disney “Imagineer” who hopes to design theme park rides and attractions for the Walt Disney Company, Annina is also interested in underwater robotics. On day she would like to use her engineering background to develop underwater exploration vehicles.
Group Photo – Princess Project
