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Young Latter-day Saints are chalking up honors in the inventive fields. Add to the list Zooey Chu from Taipei, Taiwan, who was chosen as one of eight student designers from across the United States to intern with General Motors this past season. Chu is working on a revolutionary wheelchair concept that features small wheels front and back so that users can get in and out of the chair more easily, a movable armrest for easier transfer to beds or for getting closer to the table, and flexible plastic cushions that are exchangeable to fit different users of the chair. Safety belts will be included, and exchangeable handles will fit onto the chair for different needs. It will recline, is collapsible and portable, and will adjust to different heights.

Families are the backbone of the Church. They also are important in “Project Hope.” Lynn Curtis of Torrance, California, originated the idea of doing a benefit project for Orthopedic Hospital of Los Angeles, California, when he was studentbody president of Torrance High four years ago. Younger brother Dean has come along to be studentbody president too and has spearheaded the project, which recently netted $15,000. More than 100,000 people attended the super-festival. The entire Torrance High campus was turned into model regional sections of the United States. The state flags were on display, and special features of the areas were erected in miniature, such as a Coney Island hot dog stand, a hula hut, a lighthouse, and a huge mountain range for the Rockies. The carnival drew students together in a great cause, and the townspeople are glad there are Mormon boys to stir up involvement.

Michael Yockey won first grand prize in the senior division of the Chattanooga Regional Science Fair. He captured an all-expense paid trip to the International Science Fair in New Orleans and a scholarship. Michael is the first student in the history of the twenty-year-old fair to win first place for his high school, Franklin County High School. His exhibit showed how a complicated series of electronic circuits can be combined to make a virtually foolproof lock for safes and home locks. He plans to attend Tennessee Technological University in Cockeville in the fall. Michael is a priest in the Tullahoma Branch, Tennessee South District, Kentucky-Tennessee Mission. He also serves as president of the branch Explorer post and is a seminary graduate.

Henry Marsh, a priest in the Kahala Ward, Honolulu Stake, has been voted Athlete of the Year at Punahou School, Hawaii’s largest and oldest school. In addition, he received one of the prestigious President’s Awards for all-around academic and extracurricular excellence. As a sophomore, Henry was a Texas state finalist in the one-mile run. Transferring to Hawaii as a junior, he won the Hawaii state 880-yard and one-mile runs, and as a senior, he won the Hawaii state one-mile and two-mile championships. In both years he was also the Hawaii state cross-country champion. Besides setting various school and meet records, Henry anchored the two-mile and distance medley relay teams that set all-time Hawaii prep school records. In addition to his athletic and academic accomplishments, Henry serves as president of his early-morning seminary class and has received the Duty to God award.

Andrew Mazon, Jr., a priest in the Logan Branch, West Virginia Stake, traveled this summer as a member of the United States Collegiate Wind Band that made a concert stop in seven European cultural capitals, including a stop in Russia. Concerts were given in Antwerp, London, Copenhagen, Paris, Moscow, Zurich, and Lucerne. A junior at Chapmanville High School, Andrew has played first trumpet in the band for the past four years. He has been selected for the all-area band for the past three years and was chosen as the best all-around band student at his school for the past two years. He is active in other school activities, including being a member of the Key Club and the Latin Club (of which he is president). Andrew is also on the high school basketball and baseball teams. His invitation for membership in the U.S. Collegiate Wind Band was received from Professor A. G. Wright, director of bands at Purdue University, Lafayette, Indiana. Membership in the band is limited to a minimum of 60 and a maximum of 85 college wind players and mature senior high school band students. Andrew, his mother and father, and three brothers are active in the Logan Branch. He and his brother are members of Boy Scout Troop 166, Chief Cornstalk Council. Andrew is also presently serving as secretary of the YMMIA in the branch.

Back to school means new classes, new friends, and new dating experiences. And back to school can also mean new school-year resolutions, like, Away with uncomfortable first dates, Away with what-can-we-do blues, and Away with the no-money syndrome.

The secret? It’s easy. Fellows, to impress that pert little redhead, simply use a bit of creative forethought. Do the unexpected, the unconventional. Delight her with your ingenuity, and go easy on the spending too. Believe it or not, she’ll like you for it.

And, gals, here’s the perfect chance to show him how fun you can be and, in the process, store up memories of a date-to-remember.

The following are ways to date creatively compiled by the members of a high school homemaking class who claim that every idea has been tried and proven an overwhelming success.

(Chances are, once you catch the spirit, you’ll be writing your own list.)

Ideas submitted by Nancy Wudel, Orem, Utah

A convert since May 1970, twenty-one-year-old Linda Lee MacArthur lives in New York City, is a member of the Manhattan Ward, New York Stake, and has been part of the New York City Ballet Company for eight years. Although she had no burning desire to join a church two years ago, she became friends with “a very special Latter-day Saint girl, Diana Bradshaw,” who was also in the ballet company.

“At that time in my life,” said Linda, “the most important thing to me was a new dress. I had my own apartment and wanted to be chic in all I did. Things were fine until I became very sick and began to feel a religious need. Then, coincidentally, my Mormon neighbor invited me to a parent-youth night production and I became interested in the Church.”

Linda likes to tell of her ballet career and what means the most to her.

“I’ve been in ballet a long time. I started to learn when I was three years old and living in Dorchester, Massachusetts. As a child I also took up drama and singing and performed in off-Broadway productions such as Peter Pan. It was my mother who prompted me, but I didn’t begin to study ballet seriously until I moved to New York when I was eleven. I was asked by the New York City Ballet Corporation to be an apprentice for The Nutcracker, but I didn’t appreciate the honor and wanted to go home for the summer to enjoy swimming and have fun. The following year I was given the same opportunity; I accepted and began my professional career. I apprenticed until I was thirteen because it was unheard of to have anyone so young in the company. But when the company went to Europe, I got a chaperone and became an official member of the team.

“My European tour taught me a lot. I saw extreme luxury and poverty side by side. I gained an appreciation for my country and our way of life. It was all very exciting, and other neat opportunities came my way, such as an interview for Ladies’ Home Journal, because I was the youngest in the company.

“A great deal of self-discipline is needed in ballet. Having been an actress, dancer, and singer, I find dancing the most demanding profession of all because it takes so much of one’s time and is physically exhausting. I didn’t realize this when I first began studying. My main concern was to get into the company, but once I had made it, I found it even harder, especially since I was still in school. It was very difficult for me to keep up in school even though I went to a professional children’s school in arts and theater. I was still very young to be absent so much because of performances and rehearsals.”

Linda has a special feeling for theater and arts in general because she feels that it’s the best way she can express herself. Dance involves her total movement and expression of emotion, and she advises everyone to find the field of personal exposition that suits him best.

“My life has changed most drastically since I’ve been a member of the Church. Had I not found the truth, I wouldn’t now have the things that are important, like spirituality and the gospel. I’m not dancing very much anymore because dance takes up so much of my time that I’m not able to do the church work I feel I need to. The MIA program in particular means a lot to me, and I’m privileged to work with youth that I love dearly. Living the principles of the gospel is now my daily goal. The worst conflict between the Church and my profession is the time schedule. If I were performing, I wouldn’t be able to go to church on Sunday or to MIA. Being a new convert, it’s important for me to be there. Spiritually there is no conflict. I haven’t found the people in the theater to be wild and mysterious as they sometimes are portrayed. I think you get more of that in show business and musical comedy. Girls in our company range from sixteen to twenty-five years of age. They’re just out of school and are very dedicated. They don’t have time for the outside world, so it’s not a very wild kind of crowd.

“I often question whether I can be a Mormon and remain successful in my field. I hope it will be possible, yet I feel it’s important to have a family and raise them in the Church. That means more to me than my career. A couple of years ago I wouldn’t have given up dance for anything, but my idea of a good Latter-day Saint woman is one who is dedicated to her home and family. I don’t know if I’ll ever be able to completely stop dancing after having been in the theater so long. I probably will always have the desire to perform. That’s the kind of conflict I haven’t yet resolved. I hope that if I live the gospel, the Lord will bless me with enough time to do both the way I want to.”

Marjorie Sharp is a direct descendant of Hyrum Smith. She has also completed her reign as Miss Wool of America. Marjorie lives in Salt Lake City with her parents, Dr. and Mrs. Howard Sharp. She’s studied at the University of Utah where she was a Chi Omega, active in campus affairs, and a magna cum laude graduate in nursing. She’s a fine member of the Church, taking part in all the auxiliary organizations.

She was awarded the crown of Miss Wool for her beauty and her dressmaking ability. She has made many personal appearances—including meeting President Richard Nixon—and at every opportunity Marjorie has explained the gospel of Jesus Christ. She will use her scholarship award to do graduate study this fall in the intensive care division of the Latter-day Saint Hospital in Salt Lake.

In a master’s thesis recently completed by Robert Johnson at Brigham Young University entitled “The Relationship between Hours Spent Studying and Success in School at BYU,” a number of interesting results were obtained. Male students were found to study a significantly higher number of hours than female students. Successful students (those students carrying a full academic load who have never been on probation and are progressing toward graduation) were also found to study more than students on probation. The difference, however, did not reach statistical significance.

Some very interesting information for prospective college students came in the area of how many times students change their college major. There is evidence to show that as students enter college, those who are ultimately successful become engaged immediately in activities that help them choose a college major. The successful student may change majors as a freshman but normally would remain stable in subsequent years.