A Mount Baker Secondary student is receiving a number of awards for photography and written work she submitted to an international contest.
Paniz Khosroshahy took three gold and a silver in the Scholastic Art & Writing Awards of 2013 at the national U.S. level. She won 24 awards at the regional level, of which 12 were gold. Those were then judged on the national level in the U.S. The national medalists have their work showcased at reputable galleries in New York City.
Khosroshahy said there were about 230,000 submissions and less than one per cent of those submissions take home a medal, so it's quite an honour.
Her short story, two memoirs and photo took her to the national level.
Khosroshahy said that she didn't spend too much time in preparation for the contest, as she had submitted material in the past.
"I just submitted my stuff, but I knew about [the contest] beforehand," she said. "I submitted last year too, but I didn't make it to the international level."
Scholastic presents the awards at Carnegie Hall in New York City in May, but Khosroshahy was in New York in October and said she won't be able to make it back for the ceremony.
"They're just going to send me the awards and that's fine," she said.
Khosroshahy did an internship at the Townsman last year, as she was interested in working in newspapers. However, she may be headed in a different direction, with recent news of her acceptance into one of Canada’s most prestigious universities.
“I just got into McGill (Thursday),” she said, excited. “So I think that I’m going to study political science and international development studies. After I did the internship, I was thinking of studying journalism, but now I’m thinking about law, international law.”
But that doesn’t mean her interest in the written word or the captured image has weaned.
“I’m hoping to be involved in all sorts of magazines and other stuff going on at McGill,” she said.
To read some of Khosroshahy’s work, go to www.huffingtonpost.com/paniz-khosroshahy.