There are many recipes for being a bada** woman. This is one that we particularly admire: Graduate from Santa Clara University with a Truman Scholarship as their first female valedictorian. Get your JD from the University of Virginia School of Law (WAHOOWA!). Serve as a clerk for the honorable Judge Mary Schroeder on the U.S Court of Appeals. Be the attorney general and then governor of Arizona. Become the third Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security. 
Janet Napolitano is our first bada** woman of the week, and no wonder. We have not written her entire resume, and her accomplishments are already staggering. Sprinkle in that she is ranked by Forbes as the 9th Most Powerful Woman in the World. Add on top her dedication to a healthy lifestyle that includes avid basketball playing, as well as tennis and softball. We watched a few of her public address videos, and are amazed at her clarity, her passion, and her clear investment in her position. She humbly thanked the trailblazers that came before her as she addressed the GW campus in 2011, barely acknowledging her own presence and role as a trailblazer, both for women and in politics. She heads a relatively young, but unarguably crucial department in the U.S Government. Her job requires her to oversee other departments at a wide range of state and federal offices. She does this with a clear grace and determination.
Napolitano's commitment to public service is apparent; she encouraged U.Va Law students to seize their chance and join her in the public service field. Iris has made a commitment to be more fearless this year. Napolitano also advises being daring and seizing chances. In a commencement address to U.Va Law students she remarks on how she did not “want to be 80 years old and sitting on my porch saying ‘woulda, coulda shoulda.’ If was going to dive, it was time to dive, and into the waters I went.” She dove into the waters, and made history for women everywhere. Janet Napolitano-- you are bada**.
By Lingerr Senghor
