Lilli Passero is just beginning her acting major at Carnegie Mellon. She's been singing and performing since she was young, but she never intended to enter a competition like American Idol. While walking through the University Center one night, though, after getting frozen yogurt from Skibo Cafe, she passes a room where students are auditioning for a singing competition. Encouraged by her friend, she decides to sing a capella a few bars from songs off the top of her head.

Months later, spring of 2009, Passero stands on the stage of Pittsburgh's Carnegie Music Hall in front of a sold-out audience. To get on that stage, Passero first had to be picked by judges as one of 25 semifinalists from more than 125 tryouts hailing from western Pennsylvania colleges. Then, at another performance, she had to be picked again by local celebrity judges who narrowed the field down to 10 finalists, each student vying to be named the 2009 "Campus Superstar" and win a $5,000 scholarship. This night, the packed audience—not the judges—will choose the winner.

Each performer has made it to the finals for many reasons: raw talent, training, stage energy, star quality—and perhaps for finalist Roberta Burke, undeterred drive.

Burke is trying to make her childhood dreams of performing become a reality, but it takes some juggling. The senior fine arts major at Carnegie Mellon has a demanding job in the catering business that helps pay tuition and bills. She works early mornings and then hurries to classes and rehearsals that sometimes go late into the night. Her schedule is so busy that last year she had to drop out of the competition.

Among the other finalists is Amanda Cooper, a bubbly and energetic junior musical theater major at Carnegie Mellon who, like Passero, grew up under the influence of Broadway. Rather than choose a pop song, Cooper decides to go with what she loves—a show tune that tells a story.

When the audience's votes are totaled, the results are: Cooper, 2nd runner-up for her rendition of the Broadway hit "Gimme, Gimme, Gimme"; Passero, 1st runner-up for the jazz song "Blues in the Night"; and Burke is the winner, with Whitney Houston's "I Have Nothing."

It marks the first time one university has swept the top three awards in the third annual Campus Superstar, hosted by the Hillel Jewish University Center of Pittsburgh.
Danielle Commisso (HS'06)

Update on Lilli Passero, Campus Superstar's 1st first runner-up: This fall, she sang the American, Canadian, and Israeli national anthems at the General Assembly of The Jewish Federations of North America. Among the dignitaries in attendance was Michael Oren, Israel's Ambassador to the United States.

Link to her singing Hatikvah (Israel's national anthem): YouTube video