Bermuda's young people often get short shrift, but some recent stories in The Royal Gazette suggest that all is far from lost.

Last week, we reported on Bermuda High School's victory in the Schools Debate Competition in which its team emerged victorious against CedarBridge Academy.

One of the members of the BHS team, Aliyyah Ahad was also named the year's outstanding teenager, having been chosen from a field of 30 finalists.

Environment and Youth Minister Elvin James told Ms Ahad and her fellow finalists: "Sometimes you think people are expecting too much of you. But don't be afraid to fail, we learn from our mistakes."

Last week, dozens of teenagers also gathered at XL House as part of the Global Arts Foundation's efforts to expose young people to the United Nations and the concepts of peace and tolerance. More significantly, teenagers are driving the effort to have countries in Africa and elsewhere adopt the Island's unique water catch system as a better way of using water resources.

And today, this newspaper reports on the victory of Mount St. Agnes Academy over the Berkeley Institute in the annual Schools Quiz Contest.

All of these recent events demonstrate well that many of Bermuda's young people are hard working and dedicated, not only to their schoolwork but also to the huge number of extra-curricular activities available. Hundreds will go on to university, and many of them will return home to give back to the community.

It's worth noting that the students who have done well come from both private and public schools; that fact is reassuring given the great public concern over confidence in public education.

The greater concern should be over why, when some teenagers are doing so well, that others fall by the wayside. This cannot simply be a question of academic brilliance; it would be worth looking at the qualities that the Outstanding Teen finalists or debate team members have that others may not.

There are no absolute rules in these cases, but it would be worth hazarding a guess that many of the Island's students come from stable home backgrounds (which is not, incidentally, the same thing as multiple parent homes) in which parents and other family members encourage their children to work hard and to broaden their minds in extra-curricular activities. The guessing here would also be that these homes also demand consistent and caring discipline and self-reliance and avoid spoiling their children.

What the community needs to do is to ensure that those same successful practices are spread through the community.

This should ensure not only that more children come to realise personal success, but that Bermuda builds a fairer and more equitable society for all.

On a different, but related note, if anyone needed proof of what Bermudians are capable of, they need read no further than last Friday's story in The Royal Gazette about Dr. Malcolm Brock.

Dr. Brock and his colleagues at the world-renowned Johns Hopkins University Medical School just published the results of their research into groundbreaking research into how to detect the likelihood of the recurrence of lung cancer.

That study was published in the equally renowned New England Journal of Medicine, and even to the layman, it seems clear that the research has far-reaching ramifications.

Dr. Brock has been the subject of editorials in this newspaper before, and space does not allow for a repetition of his curriculum vitae.

But he should be a great example to all Bermudians of how the possibilities are limitless for those who are bright, hardworking, come from a strong family background and who refuse to be deterred.