Do high schoolers really do the stuff I recommend in my workshop?  Do they really find time to do major service projects or run their own businesses while keeping up their grades?  And does it pay off?

Yes!! Yes! Yes!!!! I’d like to introduce you to this growing column of youth who are not waiting for some magical age or invitation to begin to become productive, to have an impact.  They are siezing the day God has given them today.  These young people are the Carpe Diem Cadre.

Meet today’s featured member: Jon Chi L

His Carpe Diem project is a self-designed website to inform voters about Barack Obama on the eve of what promises to be the most epic election since Ronald Regan.

You will be as amazed as I was by the quality of the research, the care to cite mainstream news sources, and the intriguing interactivity of the site.  You can view videos of Obama’s flip-flops, take a fact survey, download buttons to share the site with friends, interact with other visitors on a forum, even pray with other Christian voters.

Before you dismiss this as the work of a guy about to launch off to college, note this: Jon Chi is 14 years old and a sophomore in his San Diego homeschool! I met Jon Chi at the Training Minds Ministries values debate camp in California last month. His mom, Christina, attended my mini-Countdown workshop there.  Jon Chi is also active in Generation Joshua, a teen lobbying group, with which he will visit my home state to help get the vote out in the last 72 hours before the polls close.

So Jon Chi is no stranger to public service of the sort described in Countdown to College.

“I want to make a difference. I don’t want to be a person that hasn’t accomplished anything at the end of his life,”

says Jon Chi when asked about his aspirations.  He saw that Obama’s inconsistent statements and behaviors were not being well-documented in easy-to-access ways, so he determined to do something about it.  He says that he spent two solid weeks this summer doing nothing but coding, took a break to get school underway, and then came back to the project at the beginning of October, logging twenty to thirty hours a week to get it ready in time to help voters decide on Election Day. He modestly characterizes his efforts,

“One of the great things about having skills such as making websites handy is that when the need arises, you can put the skills to good use.”

Please visit his amazing site and pass it on to your friends.  This could become a political discussion site, where you young debaters could seriously discuss the issues and the candidates. You, too, can make a difference – today!