Seniors in the spotlight

There's an old joke in the newspaper business that "the readers always write."

It's true - the reader's always right - and as a letter published Sunday proves, sometimes the reader's supremely right.

We're referring to the letter from Kerri Wilfong and Mikaela Martinez of the Kootenai Alliance for Children and Families. Stunning in its simplicity and common sense, heads of The Press editorial department looked at each other, smacked their foreheads and said - well, the details aren't important. Point is, they agreed emphatically that the newspaper should be putting a spotlight on our area's high-achieving students in the academic arena, not just in sports, where The Press has a long-standing tradition of publishing photos of our region's superb athletes who win college scholarships.

So without further confessions, excuses or other hyperbole, let's just do it.

Effective immediately, The Press invites a photo of every scholarship-winning high school senior in Kootenai County. If we don't have room for all of them, we'll make room. That's the kind of problem any newspaper would love to have.

Whether it's a $500 Rotary Club scholarship for studies at North Idaho College or a $50,000 a year award to Harvard or a service academy, we want a photo of the student and a guardian or parent(s). Please be sure to include information on the scholarship and the school your student is going to attend.

As has been widely reported, Idaho's bridge between high school graduation and advanced learning is among the weakest in the nation. We have stellar students, many more than some people might imagine, whose academic achievements and other non-sports talents help them take the next big step in their journeys.

Please email a photo of your scholarship-winning super senior to two addresses: [email protected] and [email protected]. Again, the size of the award doesn't matter. It's the brain that counts.