Seminar

In some high schools in Maryland, students who are Latino and thinking about going to college often feel isolated and insecure, always separate from the culture around them. Jesus Zelaya, 16, is the only Latino in his advanced-level classes at Richard Montgomery High School in Silver Spring. Melba Garcia, 14, is one of about 10 Latinos in her class of 300 students at school in Olney. To help students like them, the Hispanic College Fund is holding weeklong seminars around the nation, including one at Towson University this week, to help propel students to college.

The business section article about the "Get Motivated" seminar is worthy of a high-school newspaper but not a paper with the long and proud history of The Baltimore Sun ("'Losers make excuses. Get out there and take action,'" May 5). While it does, indeed, report superficially on the events of the day, it fails to ask the important questions: With only 10,000 people (at most) in attendance and a published ticket price of $5, how are they able to bring Zig Ziglar, Colin Powell, Sara Palin (via satellite)

Fireworks exploded. The Olympics theme song blared, and audience members rose to their feet. The tall athlete strode to the center of the arena. Before taking the stage, Michael Phelps stopped to kiss his mother seated in the first row. No, he wasn't accepting another gold medal. The swimmer from Baltimore, dressed in a gray suit and lavender tie, was one of the celebrities headlining a touring motivational business seminar that came to the city Tuesday. Phelps told his now-familiar story of setting a goal as a child and sticking to it, allowing him to surpass his wildest dreams.

A motivational speaking event at the First Mariner Arena Tuesday is expected to tie up downtown traffic and jam parking garages in the central business district for most of the day. According to the Baltimore Department of Transportation, thousands of people are expected to attend the "Get Motivated Business Seminar" at the arena, increasing the normal volume of traffic downtown. Officials are predicting traffic tie-ups during the morning and evening peak communting hours as a result of the event, which will last between 8 a.m. and 4:45 p.m. The transportation department is urging attendees to take light rail to the event, noting that free parking is available at several stations, including North Linthicum, Cromwell and Patapsco Avenue.

The two schools sit blocks apart in downtown Annapolis. Yet students from the U.S. Naval Academy and St. John's College seldom mix. "Johnnies" lead an insular life, devouring the "Great Books." Midshipmen follow a regimented schedule that affords few liberties and little free time. Preconceptions of Mids as crew-cut hawks and Johnnies as tie-dyed doves leave each side vaguely uneasy with the other. The social impasse cried out for a diplomatic solution. And so began the annual Johnnie-Mid Seminar, a sort of scholarly summit.

An information seminar, "Enhance Your Safety, Avoid Fraud and Abuse," will be held from 10 a.m. to noon Monday at the Brooklyn Park Senior Center, 202 Hammonds Ferry Road, Brooklyn Park. Information: 410-222-4464.