Young Americans

Second in an occasional series The afternoon sun breaks into a frosty glare across the picture window of Stefan Matheke-Fischer's high-rise apartment in Silver Spring. The 18-year-old is building a computer on a plain wooden table. He has stationed an electric guitar on the floor nearby and keeps a few good books around the room to feed his spirit. Over the last six months, Stefan has joined war protests in New York and Washington, survived his first stint in jail and become more intimately acquainted with surveillance tactics of the FBI. He seems surprisingly happy.

WHAT LEGAL consequence befalls John Walker Lindh will properly be decided in a federal courthouse. But how the nation comes to terms with this puzzling young man is a more complex matter. He's a 20-year-old, middle-class kid who seems more confused than malevolent, more daffy than threatening. The accent he feigned when he was captured and the silly bravado he has exhibited since betray an immaturity that is eerily common among this country's young adults. And yet Mr. Lindh took up with a very dangerous enemy, and involved himself in a violent religious movement that took a staggering number of American lives.

A Baltimore-based foundation has won one of the largest grants in its history to create job training programs for teen-agers and young adults in Latin America and the Caribbean. The International Youth Foundation, which sponsors children's programs worldwide, received $10 million from the grant-making arm of an international bank to teach computer and work skills to people between the ages of 16 and 29 in the mostly poor countries. "We're trying to forge something new ... to enhance employment opportunities for disadvantaged youth who haven't had a chance to enter into the new economy," said Eliana Vera, director of the employment program.

CHICAGO -- They're everywhere these days. A hip couple kissing in a Perrier magazine ad. Any number of professional athletes and their wives. The young lovers in the movies Save the Last Dance and crazy/beautiful. They're all something that used to be almost unknown and, to most people, quite shocking: interracial couples. To young Americans, a black-white pair may be about as novel and daring as a Toyota Camry. But once upon a time, the idea was more controversial than gay marriage is today.

Lt. Col. George E. Peoples, M.D., a resident of Fulton, has been selected as one of Ten Outstanding Young Americans for 2001 by the U.S. Junior Chamber of Commerce. The award is presented annually to Americans with exceptional achievements and who have demonstrated service to humanity. Peoples, 38, a surgical oncologist at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, has discovered and developed vaccines that have proven applicable to a wide variety of cancers, according to the medical center.

Naomi Kline of Baltimore learned the benefits of being able to act at a very young age. "I realized that when you fall asleep in the car, you get carried in," says Kline. "So I began to pretend to sleep in the car to get carried. That's when I first realized something could come from acting." It's been a while since her parents carried her in from the car, but Kline, now 18, is still acting - and reaping the benefits. This summer, that's included a prime guest-starring role in "Young Americans," a well-received new series airing on the WB network, that might turn into a permanent role this fall.

"Young Americans," a new WB drama set at a boarding school full of pretty people, tells the very old stories of star-crossed lovers and a hero on his quest. The result: a series that not only looks good, but also has some dramatic meat on its bones. Maybe I'm just desperate for any kind of new drama in this summer of reality programs, but I think WB might have another "Dawson's Creek" in the making. "Young Americans" is pleasant to look at but doesn't make you feel stupid for looking. The heart of the series, which is filmed in and around Baltimore, belongs to Will Krudski, a "townie" from the fictional town of Rawley who wins a scholarship to the prestigious Rawley Academy, prep school for the future leaders of America.

"High school without parents" -- that's what executive producer Steven Antin calls "Young Americans," the WB's new teen drama premiering Wednesday night. And as teen dramas go, this one about life at a prestigious boarding school has a lot going for it. Start with a great-looking cast. Would you expect less from the network of "Dawson's Creek" and "Buffy the Vampire Slayer"? There's an impressive soundtrack, too, featuring the Getaway People and their hit "Six Pacs." An up-tempo version of "Over the Rainbow" in the final moments of the hour -- as the star-crossed lovers look into each other's hearts and at a mountain of family history that seems to stand between them -- absolutely nails the emotional moment.

One year to the week since NBC canceled "Homicide: Life on the Street," Baltimore is officially back in the network television series business. "Young Americans," a new teen ensemble drama for the WB (Warner Brothers) network, started production yesterday in a huge warehouse-turned-sound stage down in Locust Point where Hull Street runs into the harbor. Once again, Hollywood producers are making a million-dollar-an-episode series here, and this one promises to make the city that bleeds look affluent and pretty.

Waterside Havre de Grace beat out landlocked Westminster as the location for a new WB Television Network series set at a New England boarding school. "We're delighted," said Havre de Grace Mayor Philip J. Barker, whose town hadn't been mentioned among several possibilities, including Annapolis, Toronto and Charlotte, N.C. "The dark horse sometimes wins." He said the producers visited the Harford County town of about 13,000 the first week of April and were taken with the intersection of Congress Avenue and North Washington Street, which affords views of residential and business districts, and the Susquehanna River.