If you are a parent of a high school senior in Monroe County, Mich., you need to be paying very close attention during the next few weeks to the Community Page (every day) and Classroom Page (Thursday) sections of the print and e-editions of The Monroe Evening News.

Why?

If a scholarship foundation sends an announcement to the newspaper in hopes of attracting applicants, that’s where the notices will be printed.

Yes, your high school counselor’s office get dozens of scholarship applications. Most of the schools do have procedures through daily announcements or e-mails to get those notices to the students.

But I can tell you from experience that these announcements are not a very effective way of getting students’ attention. The students who are seniors tend to be paying to other things, shall we say, during the school day.

That is why it is to your students’ benefit when you, as a parent, point out scholarship opportunities to your child and say “Apply for this.”

Now … one of the announcements sent to The Monroe Evening News today is the 2009 Comcast Leaders and Achievers program, which provides $1,000 scholarships to college-bound high school seniors.

This program has a much earlier deadline than most local scholarships – Dec. 12 is the application cut-off. Each high school in the Comcast service area has been sent nomination information – and only one student per high school can be nominated. Homeschooled students can e-mail comcast@applyists.com for their nomination forms.

This scholarship is for students who have demonstrated leadership skills, academic achievement with grade point average of at least 2.8, and a commitment to community service. During 2008, Comcast honored 140 Michigan students with these scholarships. The 2009 winners will be notified in late February.

Yes, we will be printing the scholarship information in the newspaper. But there’s only a month before the deadline. You’ll want to be following up on this opportunity very quickly by asking your high school counselor for details.