Malala Yousafzai

Let's see...when I was fifteen, I was hanging out in a rich suburb of NYC, listening to Carol King's "Tapestry," I had a crush on Andy Kuhn, I cheered the Horace Greeley Quakers football team on Saturdays, and fought with my mom over whether to wash my hair before going to bed. Fifteen-year-old Pakistan schoolgirl Malala Yousafzai, on the other hand, is recovering far from home from a brazen, globally condemned Taliban assassination attempt because of her outspoken support for girls' education. Humbling. Even with the prospect of more surgery, in a strange country, Malala will continue to inspire young women everywhere to be brave and learn and grow. It's not enough to give her an A+ for courage; she deserves a doctorate in determination. God bless her.