Teaching our children to reach out and give back unselfishly from the time they are young is the right thing to do.

It's pretty simple: We can help others and make our community a better place.

We can volunteer in nursing homes, dig wells or teach English in remote areas in Central America. Many of us are collecting and sending supplies to earthquake-devastated Haiti. Otheres help build homes for Habitat for Humanity.

We are all part of the larger community. For many years as a teacher and counselor I was fortunate to witness the impact that selfless, dynamic teenagers have made.

Thousands of hours have been donated to society by young men and women throughout the years, and the graduating Class of 2010 is no exception.

The Miami Herald's Silver Knight Awards have been presented to outstanding 12th-graders -- the cream of the crop -- since they first started a half century ago.

Young adults from diverse family backgrounds who have given tirelessly while maintaining outstanding academic records are brought together in quite a spectacular event reminiscent of the Emmy Awards as The Miami Herald seeks to recognize and honor them as future leaders.

As youngsters, most of these kids had no idea what a Silver Knight was. Community service is just a part of their lives.

They are special individuals who see a need to make the world a little better.

Some of their projects evolved because of a family or friend's illness. Others saw the despair and inequity in poorer neighborhoods and sought ways to help. Many spent Saturdays and Sundays working with the homeless and feeding them at places such as Camillus House.

All of these young people believe that they can make the world better.

Some of these outstanding individuals write their own books to use with impoverished children. Others take original theatrical productions into neighborhoods where people live who have never experienced live stage productions.

The Silver Knight nominees are a profoundly fervent, dedicated group and are selected by their high schools to represent one of the 15 categories: art, athletics, business, drama, English & literature, general scholarship, journalism, mathematics, music, new media, science, social science, speech, vocational-technical and world languages.

There is a minimum grade point average of 3.2. All high schools -- public, private and parochial schools in Miami-Dade County and Broward -- are eligible to submit their finest. The nominees have an extensive entry application to complete followed by an intensive interview by a distinguished panel of judges.

One Silver Knight and three Honorable Mentions are selected in each category.

There is never a question as to whether they will continue to reach out and give back to the community -- it's just a matter of where and how they will continue to use their talents in the service of others.

What a fantastic group of kids!

And what an example they are to encourage our own children to donate their time to others.

Robin Sarantos, Ph.D., retired from the Miami-Dade Public Schools, was a counselor at Coral Reef High. E-mail her your questions or suggestions for future columns to rsarantos@aol.com.