News-Record.com

In recent weeks, we've all read about the students who have gotten into trouble in Guilford County Schools.

Youth First offers a refreshing look at students who have been on that side of the proverbial fence, yet found a way over it to reach a better place.

The December winners of Youth First's "Student Improvement Award" are
Matajana Guri, a sophomore at Dudley High School, and Derrick Emerson from Southwest High School.

The nomination letter calls for not "the best and brightest students in Guilford County," but rather those who turned around their lives. Dropped in to school instead of out. Marched ahead instead of fell behind. Got on the right path instead of the wrong one. Overcame adversity instead of giving in to it.

Guri is a student from Kosovo who goes out of her way not just to help herself but her classmates also in the English as a Second Language program, according to an e-mail from Darryl Kosciak, Youth First coordinator.

Emerson has had an extremely difficult time, Kosciak said, declining to go into details.
"This young man could have gone either direction," Kosciak wrote. "He chose the more difficult direction of studying, trying to do well in school, and doing the right things."

Youth First created the award to "recognize and encourage these students to continue down this path and show them the rewards and benefits they will receive by making this effort," according to the nominating letter.

All winners are eligible for a $1,000 savings bond and the title of Student of the Year in an awards ceremony to be held in May.

Best of luck to all of Youth First's improved students, who are all "students of the year" just by virtue of turning around their lives, which many adults have difficulty accomplishing. Bravo.