INTRO TEXT
When Olga Tsyganova entered a conference room in the US State Department to interview Secretary of State Colin Powell for TeenInk magazine, she didn’t clutch her note cards like the two other students in the room. The 19-year-old Franklin resident didn’t need reminders to ask tough questions. When Powell joined them–the interview was squeezed into a 20-minute slot on December 12–Tsyganova waited her turn, leaned in, and, looking the secretary in the eye, asked, “How do you sleep at night, knowing the decisions you make affect so many people?”
“I was trained in the military that no matter what’s going on, get your rest, because you’re the one who has to have a clear head,” Powell responded, in part. “I’m not Superman. I’m just an average guy trying to do the best I can at the job I’ve been given.”
Colin Powell (second from left).
A senior at Mt. Saint Charles High School, a Catholic school in Woonsocket, RI, Tsyganova won her slot on the interview panel through a TeenInk essay contest. The magazine, based in Newton, facilitates celebrity interviews by teenagers several times a year. Past interviewees include Hillary Rodham Clinton, Pedro Martinez, and Whoopi Goldberg.
“Our goal is give balance to the typical teen magazine,” says John Meyer,TeenInk‘s founder and publisher. The nonprofit organization has been publishing art, photography, fiction, nonfiction, and poetry by teens since 1989.
Tsyganova’s family emigrated from Russia 10 years ago, escaping the tumultuous political climate in Eastern Europe. They settled in Franklin because her father’s brother lives in nearby Norfolk. But Tsyganova has turned into an American kid, as well as a budding journalist. She wears faded blue jeans, hangs out at a local coffee shop, and goes dancing with friends on Friday nights. She envisions a future as a travel writer, a profession she’s been preparing for by submitting travelogues to TeenInk since the eighth grade, in addition to poetry and political opinion pieces. Tsyganova also gives piano lessons and plays in the Mt. Saint Charles jazz band.
Tsyganova and the two other student contest winners–one from Wilmington, Del., and the other from Sussex, NJ –asked Powell all about foreign affairs, national security, and terrorism. But Tsyganova also threw in some oddball questions, especially the one that wrapped up the interview.
“One last thing, between the two of us,” Tsyganova probed slyly. “Area 51, is it for real?”
“That’s burning in the minds of teenagers out there?” Powell asked. “There are no little green people in Roswell, New Mexico. Sorry.”