FORT LEE When Fort Lee High School salutatorian Aliza Ohnouna begins her freshman year at the University of Pennsylvania this fall, shell be faced with a conundrum: pursue a career in the arts or the sciences?

Salutatorian Aliza Ohnouna stands in front of the University of Pennsylvanias Kelly Writers House the institution that recruited her to attend the prestigious Ivy League school. As Ohnouna embarks on her collegiate studies, she has yet to decide whether to pursue the arts or the sciences as her career.

The 18-year-old nurtured both interests over the past four years, conducting psychiatric research at Mount Sinai Hospital in New York City and editing Poliphony H.S., an international literary magazine produced entirely by high school students.

"Im pretty torn," said Ohnouna, a self-described "literary magazine nerd" who started her addiction with the childrens magazine "Highlights" and then "subscribed to as many [magazines] as I could."

Voracious reading led to a love of creative writing, earning Ohnouna a Gold Key award in humor in the 2014 Scholastic Arts and Writing Awards and an Editors Choice Award from the teen literary magazine "Teen Ink" last year.

Though shes always liked science, Ohnouna said a three-year Science Research elective she took in high school "really opened" her eyes to its "shape-shifting" possibilities.

"It wasnt always the most accessible subject because its very textbook-oriented," she said, but through her research into how the expression of a certain gene could cause autism spectrum disorders, she was able to combine biomedical science with behavioral science and see the subject in a new light.

Ohnouna ventured into other activities over the past four years as well, including the Debate Team, which she co-captained her senior year, and the Art Crew, a club that creates props, sets and advertising material for the schools theater productions.

Outside of school, she helped familiarize an elderly woman with modern technology as a Telecare Buddy with the Jewish Family Service organization, volunteered at the Fort Lee Public Library and supervised children at the Tenafly Nature Center as a Counselor-in-Training.

She also continued to master her Spanish language skills and hopes to further perfect them in college.

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Future filled with possibilities for Fort Lee salutatorian