This is the second profile of 20 about The Gazette’s Best & Brightest Class of 2011.

When Roya Mirhossaini’s third grade teacher told her post- 9/11 that there is no such thing as an Iranian-American, Mirhossaini’s worldview shifted.

The daughter of an Iranian engineer who left his home country before the revolution, Mirhossaini suddenly found herself believing in the racial and cultural sterotypes, longing for blonde hair and blue eyes and begging her parents to take her out of Persian language courses and take her to Disneyland.

Family vacations, though, continued to the Middle East.

It wasn’t until Mirhossaini was 15 that she  saw the beauty in her family’s culture. It was a self-acceptance that is now the base for her hunger to learn as much about other cultures as possible and for her compassion.

“I became accepting of who I really am,” she said. “The world opened up to me.”

Mirhossaini’s outreach, though, started in the community in which she was raised. Through her involvement  in three National Honor Society chapters, she has organized blood drives, food drives and fundraisers benefiting Colorado Springs non-profits Care and Share and Harvest of Love, among others. She has donated countless hours to Trailblazer Elementary School and spent time during the 2008 election volunteering for the  Obama campaign.

“This is such an amazing place and I’ve been accepted by so many people, I feel like it is my duty to give back,” Mirhossaini said.

She helped bring a chapter of Invisible Child to Coronado High School, raising money to educate former child soliders. On her trips to visit  family in Iran, Mirhossaini has taught English to young, poor girls.

“I can give them my insight on my country and my culture, to counter what they’ve learned from state media.”

Mirhossaini has not solidified her college plans. Her 4.7 GPA and community service resume has turned heads at top schools in California and Boston, but as the oldest of four children, she is leaning toward staying in-state to ease expenses.

Mirhossaini’s thirst for travel means she’ll likely spend  semesters abroad.

“I definitely want to go somewhere I don’t have a lot of experience with. I want to learn as many languages as possible,” said Mirhossaini, who is fluent in English and Farsi and proficient in French and German.

ROYA MIRHOSSAINI

Coronado High School

Parents: Habib Mirhossaini, Touran Bakhtiar

College plans: undecided

Other: Boettcher finalist, Mayor’s Top 100 Teens, University of Colorado at Boulder President’s Leadership class, Congress-Bundestag Foreign Exchange Scholarship, AP Scholar with Honor

Roya Mirhossaini Photo by