STUDENT WILL WIN SPRING TRIP TO YOUNG COLUMBUS PROGRAM

A student participating in the Southeast Missourian's Newspapers In Education will head to England this spring, winner of an all-expenses-paid trip through Parade magazine's Young Columbus program.

The winner will be among 150 youngsters nationwide to win the 10-day educational and cultural trip scheduled for April 13-22.

Kim McDowell, coordinator of the Newspapers In Education program for the newspaper, said the winner will have participated in three levels of competition: an essay, an oral interview and a current-events quiz bowl.

The contest is open to seventh- through 12th-grade students who have at least one class with a teacher participating in the Southeast Missourian's NIE program. McDowell said six area schools are participating.

Students must write an essay on the topic, "What is the most urgent problem facing America today?" Students are asked to use at least three articles from the Missourian as references.

Each school will set up a judging panel to evaluate student applicants; two winners may be selected from each participating school.

The panel will judge the essay and conduct an oral interview of the applicants. Students will be evaluated on the following criteria: attitude, behavior, intelligence, responsibility, personality, verbal skills, community involvement, citizenship and aims or goals in life.

Five finalists will be selected from the school winners by a panel of judges selected by the newspaper. Those finalists will compete in a current-events bowl on Jan. 16. The bowl is a scholastic competition based on current events from Southeast Missourian newspapers.

The winner of this contest will win the trip.

The Young Columbus has been sponsored since 1956 by Parade magazine, which included in the Sunday Southeast Missourian.

Students will visit London, Oxford, Stratford-upon-Avon, Bath, Cambridge and Coventry