At Oxendine Publishing, home of Florida Leader magazine, we can tell when December has arrived. It’s not because of the Christmas songs on the radio or the holiday decorations. December has arrived when the mailman has a permanent stoop from delivering all the "Best of Florida Schools" nominations, the fax machine is spewing application after application, and the editor’s e-mail box fills to capacity every single day. While students are getting ready for the holiday break, we’re gearing up for our largest issue of the year, the 14th annual "Best of Florida Schools" awards.

But, it’s a lot of fun sifting though what schools send us, getting to read about the best things happening at public, private, and community colleges across the state. Every year, we report on the successes, improvements, and achievements of students and educational institutions. We spend the year looking through press releases, newspapers, and letters for the best in Florida. And, probably most fun for us, we visit campuses throughout the year. It’s always a pleasure to see students in their element, working to improve campuses statewide.

This is a big year for us—our 20-year anniversary as the nation’s premier publisher of student leadership magazines. To celebrate, we’re offering more categories—117—covering everything from the best new construction, and the best band to the best catapult. Because there’s no way to fit all of them in a single issue, we ran one from all 56 participating schools in print, and you can see all 117 stories in their full length at www.floridaleader.com.

Of course, the biggest challenge of all is choosing the top Student Governments and top campus newspapers in the state for 2003. As an added bonus, this year we define for you what makes a top SG and then back that definition up with examples of those that are doing it right. Newspapers are all about the finished product, so we scrutinize each paper page by page until we determine who has the best writing, presentation, and design. These groups deserve all the recognition we can give them—plus, others can get inspired from their innovations, efforts, and ideas.

Inspired? There’s never a wrong time to submit nominations for the 2004 "Best of Florida Schools" issue. Just apply at www.floridaleader.com.