U.S. Senate Confirms Lakeside Grad as Next U.N. Ambassador

The U.S. Senate has confirmed Samantha Power, a 1988 Lakeside High School graduate, as the next United Nations ambassador.

Power, a former foreign policy adviser for President Obama and noted international human rights advocate, was confirmed in a 87-10 vote Thursday, according to The Associated Press. She replaces Susan Rice, now the president's national security adviser.

"As a long-time champion of human rights and dignity, she will be a fierce advocate for universal rights, fundamental freedoms and U.S. national interests," Obama said in a written statement after the vote, according to the news service.

Power graduated from the DeKalb County school in 1988. She finished with a 4.08 GPA and a 1320 SAT score. She also participated in cross country, track and basketball.

"Samantha is an Irish-born American who matriculated to Atlanta to become educated at high school to prepare herself not just for this job, but to go to Yale and go to Harvard Law School," Georgia Sen. Saxby Chambliss said earlier this month when introducing Power to a Senate panel considering her confirmation. "Pretty good credentials coming out of Lakeside High School in Atlanta."

Power covered the atrocities in Bosnia and the former Yugoslavia and her 2002 book on genocide, A Problem from Hell: America and the Age of Genocide, earned her a Pulitzer Prize. Power worked on President Obama’s 2008 presidential campaign and ran the human rights office in the White House.

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