Discrimination, Bullying Forge A Shining Silver Knight

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MIAMI (CBSMiami) - Salma Abdelrahman is a senior at Coral Reef Senior High.

The 17-year old is pretty remarkable, poised and just days away from graduation.

As a young Muslim, she's used her experiences being bullied and discriminated against to help fight the problem. She channeled those lessons into one last English project and this week was awarded a prestigious Silver Knight award for her efforts.

"I was honestly not expecting anything," said Salma. "They said the name of my project and I was like, 'Oh my God. This is actually happening'."

Salma's project was a video she called "Fabula Rosa," which is the philosophy of how your life stories shape you as you grow older.

The video dealt with stories of discrimination and prejudice. The video was the first of eight that Salma would produce based on her own experiences.

Coming to South Florida, kids mocked her for everything from wearing a hijab, a traditional headdress, to her ethnicity.

"A lot of people would ask, 'Oh, is Osama Bin Laden your father?' or 'Oh, I heard that you're a terrorist," she said. "One day I was like, 'Okay, I'm over it. I'm not gonna be able to deal with this anymore.' And I sort of zoned out."

Salma then turned it around and became stronger.

The all-star student said making the videos gave her a clear idea of what she wants to continue to do in the future; fight discrimination and protect human rights.

"Be it Islamaphobia, racism, problems with immigration status," said Salma. "Once you face discrimination and once you've gone through it, you can't go back from that. You have this constant feeling of, 'I don't want this to happen to anyone else.' And so that's sort of become a defining characteristic of who I am."

Some of the top universities across the country sent acceptance letters to her. She starts at Harvard in the Fall. She wants to become a lawyer for human rights. Her ultimate goal - U.S. Supreme Court Justice.