McKenzie Arnold from West Ranch High School will compete in Distinguished Young Women of Los Angeles County.

High school junior girls from across Los Angeles County will join together in Tarzana for the Distinguished Young Women of Los Angeles County program to be held Saturday, February 23, 2019 at Sherman Oaks Center for Enriched Studies (18605 Erwin St, Tarzana, CA 91335).

Participants will compete for college scholarships and the opportunity to represent Los Angeles County for the Class of 2020.

The program is open to the public and will begin at 5:00 p.m. (doors open at 4.00 p.m.). Tickets will be available at the door for $5.

The young women competing will be evaluated by a panel of five judges in the following categories: Scholastics (25%), Interview (25%), Talent (20%), Fitness (15%), and Self-Expression (15%). The participants selected as the Distinguished Young Women of Los Angeles County will advance to the state level at the Distinguished Young Women of California program in Bakersfield on July 19 and 20, 2019, where she will join with other representatives from across the state in competing for cash scholarships and the opportunity to represent the state as the Distinguished Young Woman of California.
Our esteemed panel of judges are as follows:
Anita Barone headed to Los Angeles after graduating with a BFA from University of Detroit and an MFA from Wayne State University in Michigan. Three days later she was cast as a regular on a comedy series with Carol Burnett. Since then she has been a regular on seven other TV series and has starred in a dozen films. She has also guest starred on television shows including: Friends, Seinfeld, Curb your Enthusiasm, Parenthood, Desperate Housewives & Castle. Look for her in the upcoming season finale of A Million Little Things.

Tamerlin (Tammy) Godley was selected as the Distinguished Young Woman of California as a high school senior. Graduating from UCLA with a double major in English and Political Science and USC law school, Tammy is now a partner in the Munger, Tolles & Olson LLP law firm specializing in entertainment litigation. Over the past year she has handled numerous investigations spurred by the #MeToo movement. She also handled the incident and resolution of the well-publicized dispute on the set of the Bachelor in Paradise; represented Warner Bros. in its dispute with Charlie Sheen; and has been recognized by the Hollywood Reporter and Variety Magazine as one of Hollywood’s power lawyers. Deeply committed to the community, she also serves on numerous non- profit boards.

Nancy Kaufman Cornwell has been dancing since the age of 11. She was accepted to the prestigious High School of Performing Arts in New York City and went on to study dance in Paris and at the University of London majoring in theater arts. After graduation, she was accepted at the Neighborhood Playhouse in New York City where she studied with Stanford Meisner. Eventually landing back in Los Angeles, she was immediately cast as a ‘Fly Girl’ on Fox’s Townsend Television, and has appeared as an actress or dancer in many productions. In 2008, Nancy helped form the successful reality casting company Cornwell Casting Inc, which has gone on to cast over 300 shows.

Hélène Muddiman is a multi-award winning composer and hit songwriter. Her music compositions can be heard on the score for Happy Feet Two and Ice Age 4 and on the score for Tim Burton’s Disney movie Frankenweenie. As an artist, she is classically trained and plays a range of instruments including guitar, bass, keyboards and piano. Her voice has been featured on various hit songs as well as Hans Zimmer’s film scores. She has two albums for EMI and has written two top five hits, including the title track from the Gold selling album ‘FREE ME’ by Emma Bunton. She is CEO of Hollywood Elite Music & Media.

Susan Walter is well versed in both the musical and cinematic arts. She began playing the violin at age 4 and went on to play with the New England Conservatory Youth Chamber Orchestra. A graduate of Harvard, she also studied with Juilliard faculty at Aspen Music Festival. Professionally she has worked in the entertainment industry as an assistant director, development executive and writer for both film and television. Her directorial debut, “All I Wish”, starring Sharon Stone and Tony Goldwyn was released in theaters on March 30, 2018. She is currently Executive Producing a TV show, in the talent development program at HBO, and gearing up to direct a film she co-wrote.

Distinguished Young Women of Los Angeles County is proud to present the following participants for the Class of 2020:
McKenzie Arnold / West Ranch High School
Griselda Chavez Gonzalez / Santa Fe High School
Samantha Chen / Cerritos High School
Queen Chiwanga / Schurr High School
Sooyeon Eun Llovet / Diamond Bar High School
Asher Follett / La Canada High School
Aria Fulton / North High School
Carm Hermosilla / California Academy of Math and Science
Alexa Hernandez / Crescenta Valley High School
Melia Jost / California School of the Arts-SGV
Calypso Juarez / North High School
Amber Liang / Temple City High School
Sophie Lin / Flintridge Preparatory School
Anna Linnik / La Canada High School
Crystal Martinez / USC Hybrid High School
Noor Nouaili / Marlborough School
Ella Ramamurthy / Anderson W. Clark Magnet High School
Lucienne Reyes / North Hollywood High School
Nadia Sabar / El Camino Real Charter High School
Andrea Vasquez / Humanities and Arts Academy of Los Angeles
Joy Wyckoff / Van Nuys High School
Janet Yang / Santa Monica High School
Lusin Yengibaryan / Anderson W. Clark Magnet High School

For more information on Distinguished Young Women of Los Angeles County please contact losangeles@distinguishedyw.org.

About Distinguished Young Women
Founded in 1958 in Mobile, Alabama, Distinguished Young Women is the largest and oldest national scholarship program for high school girls. During its 60+ years of operation, the program has provided life-changing experiences for more than 765,000 young women. Last year Distinguished Young Women made over $1 billion cash and college granted scholarship opportunities to program participants at the local, state and national level. Our mission is to empower high school young women by providing scholarship opportunities, developing self-confidence and teaching crucial life skills needed for success in college and beyond. National sponsors include Mobile County, City of Mobile, Alabama Power Foundation, Encore Rehabilitation, Wintzell’s Oyster House, Master Boat Builders, Barbara Barrington Jones Family Foundation, Evonik, Regions Financial Corporation, Jostens and Alabama Media Group.

For more information about Distinguished Young Women, contact Kendra Haskins, Executive Director (251-438-3621), Kendra@DistinguishedYW.org) or visit www.DistinguishedYW.org.