A BHS Student Wins Award

This Friday, May 18, the Andrew Fluegelman Foundation will honor Berkeley High School senior Andranee Nebors along with seven other winners who submitted essays to the foundation’s awards committee and won Andrew Fleugelman Foundation Fellowships. The award includes a Macintosh laptop computer, printer, and training in Googe Docs use. Nebors was referred to the contest by the Berkeley Youth Alternative Program, and is one of the first BHS students to win the award since the contest’s initiation last year.

In 1995, co-founder of PC World and Macworld Magazines and major computer software pioneer Andrew Fluegelman passed away.

“His belief was if you give a computer to anybody, no matter what their circumstances are, that computer will change their lives,” said David Bunnel, one of the foundation’s leaders. In Fluegelman’s memory, his friends established the Andrew Fluegelman Foundation with his theory in mind. However, the fund remained dormant for years until they opened up the contest for the first time in 2011. Until that time, the foundation had been managed such that the fund was sizeable enough to give computers away to the winners they chose as well as many more in the future. This year, eight students won the award, but according to Bunnel they hope to have more applicants and give away more computers next year. The winners are chosen by their essays as well as their need for a computer and scholastic achievement in high school. “The whole point is to find people that really want to achieve something and give them a boost,” said Bunnel.

According to Bunnel, Nebors is one such person. “I read her essay, it was incredibly moving,” he said. “She is somebody that has amazing motivation to be successful and do something with her life. It comes through with her writing.”
She faced and overcame many obstacles throughout her high school career, as do most applicants for the award. However, she succeeded through hard work and dedication, and will go on to attend San Francisco State University (SFSU) next year with her new laptop and printer.

The awards ceremony at which the Andrew Fluegelman Foundation will present the winners with their awards will be held at the Linen Life Gallery, a donated space in San Leandro, California. The event will be semi–formal and include a reception with drinks, food, and live jazz music, followed by presentations by special guest speakers. Bruce Bouligny, co–leader of the foundation, met Nebors at the BHS campus on more than one occasion and said she was always “energetic, goal-oriented and excited about going to college.” Nebors plans to study kinesiology at SFSU and become an athletic trainer. BHS graduate Selma Derda was a winner of the fellowship last year and is currently taking classes in community college.