By The Observer

La Grande High School junior Lauren Sternfeld will not be traveling overseas this summer but she has international plans.

Sternfeld has been selected to participate in the World Scholar-Athlete Games in Kingston and Newport, R.I., June 22-July 1.

Sternfeld will be one of more than 2,000 high school-age scholar athletes and scholar artists from 160 countries and 50 states who will participate.

Competition in 13 sports will be conducted at the games. Sternfeld will play for a softball team.

There will not be national teams at the games. Instead teams will be comprised of athletes from different nations.

Sternfeld, the daughter of Mark and Toni Sternfeld, is a member of LHSs varsity softball and basketball teams.

She was nominated for the World Scholar-Athlete Games by Terral Schut of Eastern Oregon University. Schut is the director of the Eastern Experience Program.

Sternfeld did not know she had been nominated until she was notified by the games.

Everyone nominated later had to submit an application with an essay and letters of recommendation. La Grande High School teachers Lin Casciato and Teresa Dowdy wrote letters of recommendation for Sternfeld.

Students were selected for the World Scholar-Athlete Games on the basis of things such as academic and athletic accomplishments and community service.

At the games students will do much more than participate in athletic activities. Each morning all participants will meet for the games educational theme day programs involving world health, hunger and nutrition, ethics and sportsmanship, world peace and global environment. Experts in each of the fields will speak.

In addition a conference on ethics and the sports media will also be conducted at the games. Alexander Wolff, senior writer for Sports Illustrated will co-chair the conference. Panelists will include Robert Lipsyte of the New York Times, Bob Ley of ESPN and Christine Brennan of USA Today.

Sternfeld is raising money for the trip. She is also collecting Oregon mementos such as pins and pens that she can exchange with students from other countries. Anyone who would like to make a contribution should call 963-6409.