Hannah Miller, ‘15, TC Williams ‘19, is one amazing Burgundy grad. Hannah has been offered early admission to Georgetown University’s Justice and Peace Studies Program. Although we are told she will likely attend Georgetown, she has a few other exciting opportunities to consider, too! In addition to her remarkable college offer, Hannah is a remarkable citizen and advocate who embodies so much of the Burgundy mission and who makes all who knew her at Burgundy feel very proud.

For example, following the Stoneman-Douglas High School shootings, Hannah co-founded the DC/MD/VA chapter of Students Demand Action, an anti-gun violence group, to honor the victims and demand change, that grew so quickly that they split into three groups: DC, NoVa, Maryland and expanded to ten other area schools!

Hannah currently is doing a two-year AP Research class at TC Williams. It culminates in a massive research paper that is sent to the College Board for scoring and college credit. For her Seminar paper, Hannah wrote about (no surprise) gun violence prevention. She interviewed Congressman Beyer and Senator Kaine and received full AP credit on the paper. This year Hannah chose to write about how the AIDS crisis impacted the way gay people were and are treated, and she’s going to New York very soon for five days of research. She found, contacted, and secured all of the people who are advising her and her paper. One of her advisers was an original founder of ACT UP.  Hannah will attend GAG-NY and ACT UP meetings, interview people who were at Stonewall, interview the partners of those who were lost to AIDS, and so on It is a massive project, more like a doctoral dissertation than high school project.

Hannah also teaches piano two afternoons per week so that she can save. Her love of music and dedication to the apprenticeship that allowed her to start teaching came from Burgundy!

Via Hannah’s mom: “Burgundy gave me the confidence I need to be a leader… Today, when I am organizing massive protests against gun violence outside of the White House, members of the press ask me, ‘How can you do all of this at such a young age?’ I always answer that it has to be done, by every one of us, no matter our age. But I know that I can do it because I was never told I could not. The ten years I spent at Burgundy taught me I can. And I will!”