Midshipman leadership positions have been announced for the spring semester of the Naval Academy in Annapolis, and the list includes Illinois’ own Midshipman 1^st Class Sydney Barber, who hails from Lake Forest. Barber will become the Academy’s first African American female brigade commander.

Barber is a mechanical engineering major and aspires to commission as a Marine Corp ground officer. She is on the Navy Women’s Varsity Track and Field team, where she holds the record for the outdoor 4x400m relay. She is also the co-president of the Navy Fellowship of Christian Athletes Club, secretary for the National Society of Black Engineers, and a member of the USNA Gospel Choir and Midshipman Black Studies Club.

In the 44 years women have been attending the Naval Academy, Barber will be only the 16^th woman selected for brigade commander, the first of whom served in the fall of 1991.

Congratulations, Midshipman 1^st Class Sydney Barber!