Madeline Townsend: Could She Squeeze Anything More Into Her Schedule?

Name: Madeline Townsend, 18

School/Church: Parkland High School, 12^th grade; Union United Church of Christ, Neffs

Greatest Accomplishment: Being named a 2011 National Silver Scholastic Art Award winner from the Alliance for Young Artists and Writers for her photo, one of a series of eight, depicting members of a farming cult. Her inspiration was based on a book by cult novelist Chuck Palahniuk, author of the "Fight Club.”  The photo is one of 185,000 pieces submitted by more than 90,000 students nationwide. Of those, approximately 1,500 were chosen for the country’s most talented teen artists. Madeline will be recognized during an awards ceremony May 31 at Carnegie Hall in New York City, where she will join a list of other young artists’ alumni that includes famous portrait photographer Richard Avedon, pop artist Andy Warhol and movie star/producer/director Robert Redford.

Key to Awesomeness: Her myriad interests, making her a good candidate for “All-American Girl.”  Madeline finds picture-taking fascinating, a hobby that she said was fueled by her photography teacher at Parkland, Christopher Barrett (whom she describes as “awesome”). But she also has a laundry list of other activities large enough to impress any college recruiter. She’s a member of the National Honor and Spanish National Honor Societies; she runs 100-meter, 200-meter sprints and relays with the track teams; plays soccer for a club team; she's a member of the Lehigh Valley Mall Teen Board, and takes private dance lessons at Studio 5-6-7-8 in Northampton.

She says she always liked drawing and took her first photography class at Parkland as a sophomore. She elected Photography 2 as a senior, and when Barrett discovered a scheduling conflict from the previous year, he made room for her in his Photography 3 class as well. When she’s not busy snapping photos, she enjoys snowboarding and reading, plus she tutors algebra and holds down a job at Abercrombie Kids. (How’s that for a full calendar?)

Madeline’s future plans include following in an older sister’s footsteps by attending the University of Pittsburgh, where she hopes to major in Spanish and Latin American studies with an eye on a possible career in business or politics.