State Honoree

Evan Appleman, 18, of Indianapolis, Ind., a senior at Lawrence North High School, produced a series of bilingual television programs for a local cable TV channel to promote greater understanding of the growing Hispanic community in Indianapolis and to "bridge the gap" between the city's Hispanic and non-Hispanic cultures. Evan's motivation to take on this project came from one of his teachers. "He said that the greatest problem people have is that they don't understand each other, not out of spite, but often out of ignorance," explained Evan. "I thought it would be a great idea to inform people of the growing Hispanic community, so that the great lack of understanding could be eliminated."

Evan recruited two friends to help him pursue his idea, sought advice from school officials, drew up a project outline, and persuaded the local cable TV operator to allocate on-air time for a series of programs. Many after-school hours were then devoted to scripting, filming and editing the programs, entitled "Latino Community Insight," while Evan and his team maintained constant communication with people in the Hispanic community. The reaction so far has been very positive, said Evan. "Those who have seen it said that they thoroughly enjoyed it and that they had no idea so much was going on in the community."