Sophomore Sufana Hamid looked into journalism in eighth grade English. Hamid’s teacher had convinced her that her writing skills were good enough for her to be a reporter. So Hamid decided to take a journalism class at the AAJHS. Hamid wanted something special to write about in her college essay as well. 

Hamid enjoys journalism for a number of reasons, such as writing, interviewing and getting experience for future events in her life. Hamid’s favorite part of journalism is writing; she enjoys writing and has even started to write a novel. 

 “I liked the writing part about journalism. I love writing, actually. I’m writing my first novel, and it’s about war crimes which is kind of  hard to write about,” Hamid said.

In just 14 years, Hamid has racked up many accomplishments with writing and other aspects of journalism. Hamid has other interests such as reading and drawing.

“I learned two languages, and I’m currently learning two more, read a lot of books, started drawing, won awards on my articles,” Hamid said. 

“I won the 2019-2020 Altoona Area Junior High School Journalism Award, ” Hamid said. ” I also won ‘Best of SNO’ award for two articles: ‘Dancers share love of art form’ and  ‘Kiera’s dream concert scheduled for this weekend,'”  Hamid said.

Hamid is just like the other students; she has everyday struggles and large obstacles in life. She moved from Saudi Arabia to America and had to overcome the struggles that come with such a long move.

“I present myself to the world by being who I am. I don’t change myself so people can accept me, I truly act the way I think I should act as a human,” Hamid said. 

When moving to America, Sufana had to overcome xenophobia, islamophobia and bullying from other students.

“Also shout out to my teachers who didn’t say anything to the ones who bullied me! They really made me understand that even adults make wrong decisions,” Hamid said.

Hamid has so many accomplishments in journalism and a great amount of experience, in just a few years she has been doing journalism.  At the beginning of November she moved with her family to New Jersey and hopes to continue writing at her new school.