road ahead for Bermuda's youth.

"We have a long, hard struggle ahead of us as young people because most youth don't have enough positive things said or done for them,'' she said. "And if you are taught negative, you will be negative. We will have to make up for the mistakes of the previous generation.'' The 16-year-old is involved in piano, Tae Kwon Do, basketball, volleyball, and is on the student council at Mount Saint Agnes Academy. Out of all these activities, Carmen said piano was her favourite because music allowed her to relax.

She said she had been playing the piano for ten years and was at the grade eight level.

While describing herself as outgoing, eager, stubborn, and fun-loving, Carmen said she hoped to either become an insurance underwriter or an actuary.

"I like maths and science,'' she explained with a smile, "and I think one of these careers would be interesting because they don't involve doing the same thing everyday.'' One thing Carmen said she would particularly like to see change was racism in Bermuda. "Although it is not evident every day it is there and everyone feels the effects of it,'' she said. "If this pressure was lifted everyone could be themselves and have their own goals.'' She said she believed that in general people in politics were more concerned with their own success and about being in the spotlight.

But, Carmen said, they should be more concerned about the effects their actions have on others.

Carmen said one person who did care about the ramifications of her actions was her mother who she said was her role model.

"There are a lot of others who have influenced me also,'' Carmen said, "but my mom has influenced me the most.'' The active teen said she found her motivation in the fact that "tomorrow is another day''.

"Nothing you say or do is forever,'' she explained. "You can always strive for better and even if you do wrong, you can make up for it.'' If she had chance to visit anywhere in the world, Carmen said she would go to Italy because she believed it had a lot of history and beauty. "The land speaks for itself.'' The person that Carmen would most like to have met is the late US president John F. Kennedy because "just about everything about him is a mystery''.

INTERVIEW BY KRISTY WARREN