Colin makes the papers...

Highway 61's youngest staff member, Colin Reid, was profiled in the Sunday, July 30 Clarion Ledger:

National Merit Program awards 43 scholarships

By Toni W. Terrett
Special to The Clarion-Ledger

...St. Aloysius graduate Colin Reid of Vicksburg will be attending the University of Mississippi this fall. He plans to major in international studies.

"I'm not sure about my career plans, but I was kind of wavering back and forth between four or five majors," he said. "I'm sort of interested in international journalism or maybe public policy or public relations."

Reid has been keeping busy this summer working at a Vicksburg coffee shop and reading two books required by the university's honors program.

Designation as a National Merit Scholar is based largely on a student's performance on the Preliminary SAT/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test.

Reid said he remembers taking the test in both his sophomore and junior years in high school. "I had a book that was put out by a study program like Kaplan," he said.

Reid said he prepared for the test, but admits that he did not study as much for the PSAT as he did for the ACT and SAT.

More than 200 colleges and universities are sponsoring nearly 4,600 National Merit Scholarship awards this year. In September 2005, about 16,000 semifinalists were named on a state representational basis. Those students had to submit a detailed scholarship application and meet other requirements to advance to finalist standing.

Approximately 8,200 students were named National Merit Scholars for the 2005-2006 school year. In addition to college-sponsored scholarships, students were also awarded corporate-sponsored and National Merit-funded scholarships.

Come in and meet Colin before he heads off to Ole Miss.