Last year I put out a call for new teen writers for our Teen Scene and received more than 35 responses to fill three open positions. To be honest, that really opened my eyes -- I had no idea so many teens were looking for a place to be able to write about issues they were passionate about, and be read by their peers and the rest of the community.

In the past, we have bid our graduating writers farewell, asked the others to stay for another year and filled the empty positions. This year, however, based on the number of entries I received last year, we are opening up all our Teen Scene positions to new writers. That means five new writers will be chosen from around the county to fill our columnist slots.

It's pretty simple -- we're looking for teens who want to write about issues concerning teens. Whether it's something going on in your school, or something talked about by all your friends, we think it's of interest to all our readers.

So here's your chance. Send two writing samples, along with a short letter about why we should pick you as a new Teen Scene columnist, to Christie Dumler at cdumler@theviewnewspapers. If you applied last year and didn't get one of our positions, I encourage you to try again. The deadline for all entries is July 25 -- no writers will be considered after that date. Our current teen writers will continue writing their columns through the summer, and the new columnists will start at the beginning of the school year.

Our Teen Scene writers this year have been a pleasure to work with, and we hope they have helped shed some light on what it means to be a teen in Howard County. My thanks to Nick Jury, Lisa Silverman, Lauren Simenaur, Sara Olson, Sam Kelly and Karen Turner for joining us this year. You have worked hard, raised some interesting points and helped us view things affecting you in a different way.

-- Shannon Baylis Sarino, supervising editor

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