John Allen from Paxton School for Advanced Studies in Jacksonville, Florida

John helped to start the 48 member Youth Action Council which encourages community and youth development through community service such as neighborhood cleanups. He has brought together school children from elementary school to high school, community citizen groups, business affiliates and the local government. His efforts have focused on issues from litter removal to increasing awareness about lead pollution at abandoned city dumps. The mayor appointed him to the City of Jacksonville's Citizen's Planning Advisory Council.

John will attend The University of North Florida in Jacksonville, Florida.

Annie Linh Lu from Skyline High School, Oakland, California

Annie utilized her role as president of Oakland, California's Asian Youth Services Committee to create bridges between the Asian community, the Oakland Police, the City of Oakland and the Oakland Unified School District. Under her leadership, Asian Youth Services Committee provided the Bay Area with ongoing social events that brought 800 to 1000 at-risk youth to safe and fun activities in the heart of Oakland. On weekends, Annie volunteered at the Chinese Resource Center of the Oakland Police Department, where she served as a translator for non-English speaking Chinese crime victims and as a trouble-shooter for the police. With the help of the Oakland Public Schools, she created a peer mentorship program in which high school students spent four class periods a week in local elementary schools tutoring children who needed extra help and attention. Both the Governor of California and the Mayor of Oakland have honored Annie as an extraordinary citizen.

Annie will attend San Francisco State University in San Francisco, California.

Tiffany Michele Turner from Alabama School of Fine Arts, Birmingham, Alabama

For the last two years, Tiffany has been waging a personal battle against illiteracy. Her attack has been on two fronts: tutoring in reading skills and linking reading with social pleasure via a girls' book club. She began tutoring in 1998 at a local elementary school. Realizing that the students at this school came from homes where reading was not a family activity, Tiffany created Reading Partners/Tutors and recruited 20 fellow high school students to volunteer to read to the younger children on Saturday mornings. In addition, she organized a book drive and convinced local businesses, churches and community service groups to donate over 400 books to the young readers. To help make reading even more appealing, Tiffany also developed a book club for fifth-grade girls which she called Sister to Sister Book Club. She provided drinks and snacks for the girls and facilitated informal discussions of the chosen books. Tiffany's peers from the Alabama School of Fine Arts are going to continue the Reading Partners/Tutors program now that she has graduated from high school.

Tiffany will attend Florida A & M University in Tallahassee, Florida.

Emily Roesler from Fernley High School, Fernley, Nevada

Emily created a community service club, called RACS (Random Acts of Community Service Club) at her high school. This club has become a vehicle for over 50 high school students to find opportunities to connect to the world outside of school. RACS volunteers tutored children weekly at a local elementary school, volunteered weekly at the Senior Center, helped weekly at the Nevada AIDS Foundation, helped monthly at the Nevada VistaCare Hospice, and provided workers for several one-time jobs such as painting lines in the Senior Center parking lot. Although Emily has graduated, RACS will continue to exist at Fernley High School, continuing to help the community for years to come.

Emily will attend Brigham Young University in Provo, Utah

T. Joseph Bressette, from Spaulding High School, Barre, Vermont

T. Joseph designed and initiated an art therapy program for the elderly. His program, Art to Heart, provided the opportunity for nursing home residents to express their creativity through different mediums. T. Joseph made weekly visits to three nursing homes, reaching approximately thirty residents. His focus was on the process, not the product, and even legally blind residents participated in expressing themselves through the visual arts. At the end of the year, he planned and presented an art show at each facility with matted and framed artwork, award certificates, refreshments and press coverage.

T. Joseph will attend Elon College in Elon College, North Carolina