A good amount of time is spent by older generations wondering about the state of the latest generation.

That was true in the 1970s as my generation left school. Our elders wondered what would become of us. Some figured many of us would barely eke out a living and waste our time at the pub playing foosball.

Well, a lot of us surprised them by turning out to be respectable citizens.

The same scenario plays out each year as a new crop of graduates enters the workplace. However, each year gives me fresh hope they will achieve great things.

Part of this has to do with my involvement in hiring summer interns at the Herald & Review. Each year we have at least one college student who spends the summer learning more about the newspaper business - specifically trying to find out if this is something they want to do for a living.

Each year brings a new face, eager to tackle the job and learn. Each year I end up being heartened by my exposure to these eager minds.

However, I have a special fondness for one of our former interns who just graduated from Eastern Illinois University. Ashley Rueff may be a familiar name because she is from the Decatur area and she also spent two summers here working in the newsroom.

While I know Ashley and her family take great pride in what she has accomplished, I share in the pride because I have been around her for so long. In fact, when young people ask me how they can have a successful career as a journalist, I essentially tell them the Ashley Rueff story.

Ashley started her career at the Herald & Review as a newsroom clerk while she was a junior at Mount Zion High School. Clerks come and go, but Ashley made a good impression. She was accurate, punctual, understood deadlines and wanted to learn.

Her performance as a clerk is what helped her get a leg up when she applied to be an intern in 2005. Though she lacked some experience, she had the drive to succeed. Ashley's first stories were a bit stiff, but we worked with her to improve her writing. A quick learner, it wasn't long before Ashley was writing stories with ease and grace.

Based on that experience, we had her back for another summer. We weren't disappointed as she worked on stories that second summer that were more complex.

During her two summers at the Herald & Review, she wrote about a variety of subjects. Ashley covered the Decatur-Macon County Fair, filled in for reporters who were on vacation and came up with a few ideas of her own.

I would have loved to have her spend the summer of 2007 here, too, but we agreed it was time for her to break away from her hometown paper and find a different challenge. She found that opportunity as a reporting intern for the Dow Jones Newswires Commodity Service in Chicago, which is a prestigious internship. This summer she will intern at the Arizona Daily Republic in Phoenix as the winner of a Pulliam Fellowship.

Ashley will be able to accomplish anything she wants to in life. She is dedicated, serious and extremely talented. I know there are other new graduates who have the same attributes.

Do I worry about the future? Sure, a little. But with Ashley Rueff and others of similar talent freshly unleashed on the world, I believe we'll be in good hands.

Managing Editor Dave Dawson can be reached at ddawson@herald-review.com or 421-7980.