Glamour knows that college women aren’t just about going to frat parties and living it up on spring break. College women are so much more than that: future leaders, scientists, philanthropists, artists, and more. For the past 56 years, Glamour has paid tribute to their Top Ten College Women — a prestigious club that includes Martha Stewart and Kate White. I had lunch with this year’s ten winners on behalf of Her Campus and had a total blast. Not only are these girls whip-smart and crazy ambitious, they’re also seriously down to earth and fun to talk to. Ready to meet the big winners?
Margaret Gilroy – United States Naval Academy: She oversees 1,000 sailors- and Marines-to-be in the workouts and inspections every morning at dawn, and is the captain of the Naval Academy’s women’s marathon team.
Simone Bernstein – St. Bonaventure University: Simone and her brother founded VolunteenNation.org, a site that matches teen volunteers with community service opportunities around the country.
Grace Young – Massachusetts Institute of Technology: This science whiz builds marine robots to explore oceans in order to combat climate change, pollution, and overfishing.
Otana Jakpor – University of Southern California: Otana combats air pollution by testifying at the California Air Resources Board and conducting her own air-quality studies, which received citations from the Environmental Protection Agency and the White House.
Katherine Bomkamp – West Virginia University: She created the Pain Free Socket, a heated insert for prosthetics to cure phantom pain in soldiers who lost limbs.
Julie Johnston – Santa Clara University: The All-American athlete led the U-20 women’s national soccer team to World Cup victory last year.
Alice Lee – University of Pennsylvania: After her Web resume for Instagram garnered 80,000 views in just one week, she’s now the youngest product designer at Dropbox.
Cara Eckholm – Princeton University: This fast-talker has beaten hundreds of competitors from around the world on Princeton’s politics and debate club.
Micah Schure – Emerson College: She performs original pop around the country, and was once complimented by Beyoncé herself.
Noorjahan Akbar – Dickinson College: She’s the poster girl for women’s rights in Afghanistan… literally. Her face is on billboards around the country to promote a film about her work for women’s rights.
Over lunch at Condé Nast, the girls told me about their whirlwind trip to New York (highlights include a tour of Facebook and breakfast at the legendary Alice’s Tea Cup!), debated Susan A. Patton’s notorious Daily Princetonian op-ed, and talked about their big goals for the future.
Collegiettes, pay attention: if you’ll be a junior next year and are working to change the world in a big way, keep an eye out for Glamour‘s Top Ten College Women 2014 application next year!
Photo credit: Aaron Richter/Glamour