Ypulse has an interesting - and hopeful - posting today on teenagers’ views on the American Dream. The findings of a recent Harris poll show that today’s teens aren’t the cynical, negative group that they are stereotyped to be. Some of the findings include:

Family makes teens happiest (20 percent), with friends following a close second at 15 percent.

Fifty-eight percent say a college education is a necessity in order to achieve the dream, with 20 percent of those saying a four-year university degree is mandatory.

71 percent believed they personally can achieve the American dream.

I think that’s great news, don’t you?

There’s a $10,000 scholarship up for grabs by a student who blogs. Yes, that’s right - if they have a blog, include interesting and unique information, and are a full-time college student, they are eligible. Check out the Blogging Scholarship web page for more info and deadlines.

Beloit College has released it’s annual Mindset List. If you’re not familiar with the list, it gives a general worldview of 18-year-olds who are entering college this fall. There are links on their site to previous lists, too. Here are a few examples from the list:

• They have grown up with bottled water.
• Half of them may have been members of the Babysitters Club.
• Stadiums, rock tours and sporting events have always had corporate names.
• Being a latchkey kid has never been a big deal.
• MTV has never featured music videos.
• The World Wide Web has been an online tool since they were born.

The full list is really interesting - you can see it at: http://www.beloit.edu/~pubaff/mindset/2011.php

From a news article just released:

The Public Library Association’s (PLA) 2007 Public Library Data Service (PLDS) Statistical Report tracked young adult service trends in public libraries. The report found that nearly 90 percent of the public libraries surveyed offer young adult programs, with more than half (51.9 percent) employing at least one full-time equivalent dedicated to fostering young adult programs and services, up dramatically from 11 percent in 1995.

This is great news! Read the rest of it at the YALSA web page.

In a new nonpartisan, multimedia campaign to empower every eligible 18-year-old in America to register and vote in the 2008 presidential election, Declare Yourself is partnering with an unprecedented list of the most popular online destinations.

The campaign will leverage the enormous reach of Yahoo! (Premier Online Information Partner) and MySpace (Premier Social Networking Partner), YouTube, Google, Friendster, Evite and Good Search. Major media partners Clear Channel and Comedy Central also have joined the campaign, founded by TV and film producer Norman Lear. Golden Globe winner America Ferrera, ABC’s “Ugly Betty,” and Hayden Panettiere from NBC’s hit show, “Heroes,” who turns 18 this year, will serve as spokespeople for the project.

How cool is that?! Find out more at www.declareyourself.org .