A King’s Fork High School freshman will meet senators and explore the nation’s capital this summer while learning more about journalism and media studies during the 2016 Washington Journalism and Media Conference.

Kiara Biggs will stay on campus at George Mason University during the intensive study, which will include hands-on learning and decision-making exercises that challenge the students to solve problems and explore creative, practical and ethical aspects of journalism and media.

“I saw this was an opportunity that I could take and also it would give me an extra college credit,” Biggs said.

She has always enjoyed reading and writing, which serves her well in the International Baccalaureate program.

“In the IB program, every assignment is a research paper,” she said.

Her grandmother, Doreen Facey-Biggs, said Kiara bypassed toys and went straight to books as a youngster. She recalled Kiara “playing” outside, which really meant reading outside, while a cousin played with toys nearby.

“I’m so proud of her,” Facey-Biggs said.

Kiara Biggs said she hopes to go to college for neuroscience to finance her creative writing career on the side, and maybe eventually delve into writing full-time.

She already has some of her own ideas on media and journalism.

“I feel that we also need more big magazines writing about substantial things,” she said, adding that she believes the current election cycle has given too much media attention to certain candidates. “If you’re going to vote, you need to hear more about every candidate, not just the ones people are making fun of.

“It’s one of those things I would like to broaden the scope on.”

Rosalind Bigg, Kiara’s mother, said it has been fun to watch her daughter open up.

“It’s been a joy to watch,” she said. “She’s always been so intelligent. She has a whole other world going on in her mind.”

At the weeklong conference, Biggs will hear from prominent journalists, leaders of major media outlets, researchers and recent college graduates successfully entering the field.

Past speakers have included Hoda Kotb from NBC, Brian Lamb from C-SPAN, Pulitzer Prize-winning photographer Carol Guzy, and Sonya Ross from the Associated Press.