What do Yo Yo Ma, Steve Jobs, Dolly Parton, Cindy Crawford, Steven Spielberg, and the co-owner of the Young Ladies of Grace Academy all have in common? They’ve all experienced the damaging effects of bullying.
 
In the case of Angela Lukaszonas, who co-owns the academy with her mother Janine, the bullying happened in high school when she was “harassed relentlessly.” She describes the painful ordeal.

“The group of girls who turned against me used to be my best friends. You cannot imagine the horrible, vicious rumors, all untrue, that were said about me to anyone who would listen," said Lukaszonas. "They defined me as an ugly, stupid, useless person who was an annoyance in their life.”
 
Sometimes, this “verbal beating" can be shrugged off. Take Dolly Parton, for example, who today admits that "dumb blond" jokes don’t bother her.

"That’s because I know I’m not dumb,” she asserts. And then, with a conspiratorial wink, added, “I also know I’m not blond."
 
Sometimes, though, the insults go way beyond jokes. For Angela and her family, the situation became unbearable. Her parents took her out of school and enrolled her in the New York Conservatory of Dramatic Arts. That’s when she fulfilled her desire to be the person she had always known she could be.
 
Angela and Janine know the arts can help other young people become the individuals they have hoped to become. Through the arts, this mother/daughter partnership hopes to instill a sense of self-worth in their students. They’ve had first-hand experience with the arts as a vehicle for developing self-confidence, for adding poise and grace and modesty to one’s life.
 
Acting, yoga-fitnes, ballet, jazz, and hip-hop lessons are vehicles the Lukzszonases use to help their students become self-actualized.

Creativity coach Jill Badonsky once remarked that “simple confidence can change perception of both audience and artist.” The Lukzszonases are determined to change perceptions in the best way possible.