Today's newspaper column
George Bernard Shaw said that youth is wasted on the young.
He never met the 13 finalists in the News & Record's annual Scholastic Achievement program.
After spending an afternoon with the teenagers, I don't think they have wasted a minute. In fact, all of their civic and charitable activities -- along with their academic prowess -- put me to shame.
They also inspire me.
Every year the News & Record awards a total of $14,000 in college scholarships to the area's academic superstars. In all, 331 students from 39 high schools participated this year.
They are students like Camorie Donnell, a Dudley graduate headed for UNC where he plans to major in medicine. "My mother said the first word I learned to spell was 'doctor,'" he said. "I don't know if that's true, but she always wanted me to be a doctor."
He'll be the first generation from his family to attend college.
And Sara Boskovic, a graduate of Southwest Guilford, will attend Chapel Hill. Fleeing the war in Bosnia in 1997 with her family, she arrived here speaking no English. It didn't stop her from getting a 5.0 grade point average and participating in the Red Cross Club, Spanish Club, Junior Civitans and act in school plays.
A third, Sara Hanson, is a graduate of Dalton McMichael in Rockingham County and plans to attend VMI. She wants to become a foreign service officer in the Air Force. "At least I'd be doing all I can to help the world deal with all the issues," she told the scholarship judges and me.
The scholarship finalists share similar traits. They're overachievers, participating in sports, church and work. Shelley Swing of Northeast High School is a Reading Buddy at Monticello-Brown Summit Elementary. Casey Cox is student government president at Eastern Randolph. Sarah Lupton of Page earned a Girl Scout Gold Award. Drew Tucker of Andrews is a counselor at the UNCG All-Arts and Sciences camp this summer.
I'm tempted to say they are the region's best and brightest, but I doubt that is entirely accurate. There are thousands of students whose grades may not be as good but who volunteer, who assist others, who hustle to make the lives of others better. They go largely unnoticed by the community at large, but those they help cherish them.
Honoring these qualities is why we started the News & Record Scholastic Achievement program.
In 1990, News & Record leaders were looking for a unique way to celebrate the paper's centennial and to invest in the community's future. As a newspaper, we have a passion for public education, and we wanted to honor academic excellence in the region's schools.
Our "all-academic team" deserves the same attention our "all-area" sports teams get. Actually, we give it more.
Next Sunday, we will publish a special Scholastic Achievement section that announces the winners of the scholarships and honors each of the 331 students who participated.
Here's how we select these outstanding students: We ask guidance counselors at each public school in our circulation area to select teams of outstanding scholars from the 10th, 11th and 12th grades. They make up their school's academic team. One senior is chosen as the school's nominee.
Each nominee submits dossiers with his or her high school transcript, a summary of extra-curricular and community activities and a report on financial need. A team of judges then selects the winners.
This year's judges were Gary Palmer, assistant vice president of community affairs with Replacements; Uma Avva, president of the Guilford PTA Council, and Linda Wilson, executive director of health services at N.C. A&T State University.
As the judges struggled with their selections, they made it clear that they wanted to give every student a scholarship. The candidates were that strong.
George Bernard Shaw said something else about youth that could apply to these teenagers: "When I was young, I observed that nine out of 10 things I did were failures. So I did 10 times more work."
I don't know if these students are failing as often as he did, but I guarantee they are working as hard.
Comments (4)
To report abuse of the comment feature on this site, please use the feedback form at the bottom of any page.
America may love a winner, but the greater good would come from lending a hand to the least of these.
Posted on June 12, 2005 10:33 AM
Steve, America DOES lend a hand to students - through programs like the National Health Service Corps (medical student loans repaid for service to underserved communities).
The very same day you raked me through the coals . . . for trying to get some exposure on how (in my case) this kind of program was used & abused . . . for daring to express an opinion . . . for vocalizing frustration with a system of public oversight & "justice" that is clearly broken . . . and for posting commentary under my real name, you posted poetic on "the greater good"?
The world is a snake pit, you said. Should these gifted and intelligent young people expect to change the world simply because they apply themselves to it?
I hope so.
John may be inspired by these young doctors in the making. I am terrified for them.
Posted on June 13, 2005 10:56 PM
Hell hath no fury like a woman proven wrong.
Posted on June 13, 2005 11:19 PM
How EXACTLY have you proven me wrong Steve? You've attacked my degree . . . and my intellect . . . and my anger & frustration with a system of medicine and "justice" that has treated me & my family (and patients) in a way that I certainly would not wish on you and yours. You implied that I did something "bad" (anyone who has really checked out the Asheboro Pediatrics website knows better) and somehow deserve the treatment I got. But you haven't "proven" anything WRONG. And you apparently HATE IT that I won't just back down from an unfair fight. But hey, I've had lots of practice.
I'm all for scholarships - merit and otherwise (I had a couple of small ones myself - go ahead, make the snide comments), but THINK about it. You want to throw more money at "the least of these" - not understanding that, as the system currently works (at least in medicine), most of the "least of these" (without the right name or money or connections) will REMAIN the "least of these" no matter how hard they work. They're swimming uphill, and in fifteen or twenty years they're me . . . or any one of the number of doctors & nurses I've met in seven years who are giving up and getting out . . . because medicine has sold its soul to a bunch of MBA's & lawyers . . . in the process becoming a sad combination of Enron and Wal-Mart.
I'm far from wrong. The not-for-profits in this state are (finally) on the hot seat for their under-the radar/not-so charitable deeds and they need to FEEL the heat. In my case, Randolph Hospital & RMA administrators lied under Oath not once, not twice, but eighteen times about the "confidentiality" of their "not-for-profit" books & salaries - and they did it to mislead, obstruct and defraud. Their 200 and 300 percent salary increases (coinciding with the disporportionate share scam) were posted on the Asheboro Peds website long before this kind of thing was even on the News & Record's radar. Other folks (on both sides of the political aisle) are as disgusted with this kind of garbage as I. ProCare has gotten some long overdue attention thrown on "not-for-profit" Blue Cross Blue Shield of North Carolina this week - for spending nearly a half-a-million dollars of shareholder money on a courtesy tent at the US Open. Again, wake up and smell the disinfectant . . . or not (and pay through the nose as you whine).
Bye the way, I've gotten some pretty positive feedback over the last week from people who think I've made some pretty good points and have encouraged me to blog on. They read but they don't post. They don't want to deal with your scorn.
You're right. Hell hath no fury. But you really do flatter yourself if you think "the fury" is directed at you.
Posted on June 14, 2005 8:44 PM