S aturday, thousands of teenagers will wake up before 8 a.m. That alone is news to anyone who's spent time around teens on Saturday mornings. These students, however, are getting up early so they can report to local testing centers at 8:15 a.m. to take the new Scholastic Aptitude Test, the dreaded college entrance exam. The revised exam, first administered March 12, is radically different. A writi

I n June 1964, three civil-rights volunteers disappeared in Philadelphia, Miss. In early August, 44 days later, police found their bodies buried in an earthen dam. The activists -- Michael Schwerner, 24, James Chaney, 21, and Andrew Goodman, 20 -- did not share a final resting place. In the '60s, no cemetery would take both blacks and whites. The three were part of the 1964 Freedom Summer, an effo

In the 2000 election, 35 percent of eligible 18- to 24-year-olds in Indiana voted, compared with 68 percent of voters ages 25 and up. Similar percentages were noted nationwide. This year, with the presidential election predicted to be close, a diverse coalition of groups is trying to mobilize millions of young adults and get them to the polls. But there's more to political involvement than voting.

Ronald Craig Jr., 17, is clear about where his love of music comes from. "I've known music before I came out the womb. I am married to music," he said. But Ronald doesn't dream of Carnegie Hall. Instead, he works to transform everyday sounds into his own unconventional art. Ronald, aka "DJ Xcel," is a beatboxer in the group MOB, which stands for "mind over body" or "master of beatboxing." Joined b

Last spring, Y-Press surveyed 550 young people in the Indianapolis area about what political issues matter most. The majority cited education. They are not alone. Lawmakers value education as well. Sen. Richard Durbin, D-Ill., credits education for much of his success. "My mother was an immigrant, and she and my father only went to the eighth grade," he said. "But they really believed in education

For years, the United States has been the target of increasing animosity from the Arab world, culminating in the Sept. 11 terror attacks on America. This year, events such as the murder of journalist Daniel Pearl in February and attacks on Christian institutions in August have shown the resentment of many Pakistanis toward the United States in general, and the war in Afghanistan in particular. In

"I was going to the mosque once, and I usually . . . wear a scarf when I go to the mosque. I was at a stoplight, and there was this man in a truck, and he got out and came up to my window and gave me the finger, and just stood there for like two minutes. "And I didn't know what to do because I was all alone in my car, and there's this big guy and I'm this little girl. And so I just sat there and d

A few years ago, U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan said, "In too many countries, an official conspiracy of silence about AIDS has denied people information that could have saved their lives. We must empower young people to protect themselves through information and a supportive social environment that reduces their vulnerability to infection." No continent has been more devastated by AIDS than Afr

More than 500,000 international students studied at U.S. colleges and universities in the 2002-2003 academic year. Michelle Sharaf, 19, joined their ranks last fall. She's from Lahore, Pakistan, and now attends Butler University. She went to an all-girl Catholic school in her home country and decided to study in the United States after visiting her sister, who lives in Illinois. In a recent interv

Nisreen Deeb, age 25, is not your average University of Indianapolis senior. A native of Israel, Deeb was adopted at age 13 by her uncle in Florida so she could remain in the United States. After studying at the University of Haifa in Israel for a year, Deeb came back to the United States to major in international business. Furthermore, she considers herself Palestinian and is a Maronite Christian