By ALEXANDRA SILVER

Just one year ago, the Taliban in Pakistan shot Malala Yousafzai after standing up for the education of women. At the time, Malala was 15 years old, but never failed to express her opinions and beliefs to the public, despite the danger she is constantly surrounded by.

Yousafzai is now 16 years old and was recently nominated to receive the Nobel Peace Prize, making her the youngest recipient if she had been awarded said prize. Along with that, she is quite possibly one of the most inspirational and wise teenagers of this generation.

Yousafzai is an activist and continues to share her passion for education after being shot in the head by an Islamist militant. Her efforts have received worldwide news media attention and has been a major story in the U.S. national news media this week with her visit to New York.

On the bus ride home from school one day, a militant stepped onto the bus and asked, “Who is Malala?” Shortly after he opened fire in front of the children on the bus, as she gripped her best friend’s hand. Many did not believe that Malala would survive, but she came back stronger than ever.

In a recent interview with Jon Stewart during her New York trip, Yousafzai discussed how she has been a target since the age of 11, but still does not believe in hating the Taliban. She believes that the daughters of the men in the Taliban also deserve a quality education and hopes that one day they will be able to receive that.

Yousafzai’s true dream is to become Prime Minister of Pakistan and she promises to make sure that tax dollars are used for schools rather than “cronies or pork barrel projects.”

Although she did not win the Nobel Peace Prize this week, she did receive the Andrei Sakharov Prize from the European Parliament for standing up to an oppressive power. Despite this, I am sure she will be nominated in the future and she already knows exactly what she would do with the prize money.

“A Nobel Peace Prize would help me to begin this campaign for girls’ education” (CNN).