Contact: Tammy Lane • First Posted: Tuesday, June 8, 2010

Rising senior Jonathan Karp and science teacher Zachary Matson of Lafayette High School are among the 2010 Bezos Scholars invited to this summer’s Aspen Ideas Festival.

Twelve remarkable high school students and 12 visionary educators from across the country will spend July 5-11 in Aspen, Colo., taking in special events and engaging in roundtable discussions with international leaders, acclaimed thinkers, policymakers and artists on topics ranging from the economy to the environment.

The scholars will also be treated to exclusive meetings with festival notables. Past guests included retired Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor, Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings, oceanographer Sylvia Earle, inventor Dean Kamen, President Bill Clinton and Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Thomas Friedman.

“We live in a sound-byte culture where our collective attention span falls short when it comes to thinking deeply about many things,” says Kitty Boone, vice president of public programs at the Aspen Institute. “One of my long-term goals for the Aspen Ideas Festival is to reach out to broader audiences and strike a chord about the value of listening to, and talking about, the issues that we face in our world, whether they focus on conflicting religious beliefs, approaches to education, the thrill of a scientific breakthrough or the very real challenges facing our environment.”

After Aspen, each student/teacher team will plan a local ideas festival that focuses on a relevant issue for the scholars and their respective schools. The most impressive plans are rewarded with $1,000 grants to use as seed money.

The Bezos Family Foundation is a private, independent foundation that works to strengthen educational opportunities for everyone, regardless of economic circumstances, and to cultivate learning as a life-long process.

The scholars program, which seeks independent thinkers and proven leaders, reviews applicants based on academic achievement, demonstrated leadership and community engagement.