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Giving voice to young leaders- Here’s your chance to get your views on leadership published.

One’s a Republican with ties to Southern California.

The other’s a Democrat from Wyoming, Montana and Alaska.

These two Gonzaga University seniors hope their new book will give young people a voice that transcends politics and geography.

Rob McDonald
Staff writer

http://www.spokesmanreview.com/local/story.asp?ID=19304

"We believe in different things but we came together to put together this book," said Dean Robbins, 22, a Republican and a mechanical engineering student. He joined forces with Rob Grabow, 23, a finance major.

They believe that America’s future leaders need their own publishing house to provide a forum, so they created one this summer, College Tree Publishing. It can be found on the Web at http://www.collegetreepublishing.com.

Submissions to their first book, "What We Think," will be taken from writers age 18-24 until Sept. 1, although the deadline may be extended. A form for submitting articles can be found on their Web site. They hope to have 100 copies of the nonpartisan book published and available at college bookstores across the country by Oct. 25.

"It’s important future leaders get together and start talking," Robbins said.

Their aim is to capture America’s young people through their sassy essays, sarcastic wit and thoughtful words in a 300-page collection. They envision becoming a voice for the 34 million college-age people in the United States. A panel of readers recruited from Gonzaga will help them select the best pieces.

Gonzaga offered them use of a campus office until the end of fall semester to help them get the first publication completed. They expect the costs will be about $10,000, which they expect to raise in part through family loans.

The students sent press releases to hundreds of newspapers and book reviewers and followed up with phone calls. Major universities such as the University of California, Los Angeles, and the University of Utah have agreed to publish the request for submissions in their school magazines. Through friends at Princeton, they’re circulating their requests for submissions through school clubs.

They began asking for written works last week and have received 10 submissions. Thirty more are pending.

One of their favorite submissions so far comes from a Boston College student who wrote an essay about the United States’ "freedom fries" reaction to France’s opposition to the war in Iraq.

The attacks on the French, in the form of taking the word french out of fries and posting anti-French signs in dorm rooms, is justified, states the writer.

Objecting to U.S. policies is one thing, "lobbying other governments against the United States, conducting deliberately obstructionist policies, and distorting and hiding the facts is quite another."

The writer goes on to say the French are best relied upon for their chocolate mousse-making skills.

"It’s sassy," Grabow said. "There’s an element of passion there."

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