A Letter from the Publisher: Nov. 18, 1985

It is an article of faith at TIME that individual excellence should be sought out, encouraged and rewarded, especially among young people. To this end, and to help celebrate the 50th anniversary of the TIME Education Program, which helps teachers utilize the magazine as a classroom tool, the TIME College Achievement Awards have been established to recognize the accomplishments of outstanding students at U.S. colleges and universities.

This new undertaking grows out of TIME'S commitment to its college readers. The magazine publishes a campus edition of 550,000 copies, and Time Inc. sponsors a summer intern program that enables selected students to work at TIME and other company publications, usually between their junior and senior years. TIME has special reason to believe in the abilities of young people. Henry Luce and Briton Hadden were only college sophomores when they began their remarkable partnership, later becoming managing editor and chairman of the Yale Daily News. Before their 25th birthdays, Luce and Hadden went on to found TIME.

Between now and next spring, a nationwide search will take place to select 100 juniors, enrolled full time at four-year U.S. colleges and universities, who have compiled top academic records and excelled in such areas as community service, student government, athletics and the arts. The presidents of 250 colleges and universities have been asked to help conduct the talent hunt on their campuses. To date TIME has received more than 7,000 requests for achievement-awards applications.

Announcement of the 100 winners will take place next April. The 20 candidates deemed most outstanding will receive cash awards of $ 1,000 to $5,000; the other 80 will be given certificates of merit. All the winners' names will appear next spring in a special insert in TIME; the top 20 will be profiled. Judging will be conducted by TIME and panels of distinguished educators and community leaders. To launch the awards, TIME last month published a special section in its campus editions called "Portraits in Excellence," in which 14 illustrious former college students, including Astronomer Carl Sagan, Journalist Barbara Walters, Architect I.M. Pei, Choreographer Agnes de Mille and IBM Board Chairman John Opel, were asked to look back at their school years and reflect on the question "What prepared you to excel, and why?" We hope the answers will provide inspiration for today's college achievers.

John A. Meyer