A student-educator team from Chief Sealth International High School will be in Colorado next week after being named “Bezos Scholars” – read on for the details in a Seattle Public Schools announcement:

A Chief Sealth International High School student and her social studies teacher have been named 2010 Bezos Scholars and will attend an all-expenses-paid conference July 5-11 with international leaders, acclaimed thinkers, policymakers and artists.

Student Molly Freed, who just completed her junior year at Sealth, and teacher Noah Zeichner will be among a group of 12 high school students and 12 educators from across the U.S. who were selected for the Aspen Ideas Festival from July 5-11, in Aspen, Colorado.

Bezos Scholars will engage in lectures, presentations, debates and panel discussions that span a vast range of critical topics, from the economy to the environment, from science and education to the arts. Scholars will also be treated to exclusive meetings with Festival notables. Past scholars have shared scholars-only time with retired Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor, Secretaries of Education Arne Duncan and Margaret Spellings, Teach for America founder Wendy Kopp, oceanographer Sylvia Earle, inventor Dean Kamen, Tom’s Shoes founder Tom Mycoskie, President Bill Clinton and Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Thomas Friedman, among many other notables.

Following the week in Aspen, each student-educator team will apply for $1,000 seed grants to use in creating Local Ideas Festivals that focus on relevant issue for the scholars and their respective schools.

“This is a tremendous honor for Chief Sealth International High School, Molly and Mr. Zeichner,” said Chief Sealth Principal John Boyd. “Molly put together a video on her ideas about climate change at the urging of Mr. Zeichner, who teaches a Global Leadership class.” The class focuses on global perspectives as part of Chief Sealth’s International School Designation, and encourages students to become engaged in addressing critical local and global issues, Boyd added.

Freed’s one-minute video won an international contest sponsored by ePals, and was included as part of a DVD compilation shown to delegates at the Copenhagen Climate Conference in December 2009.

“I am honored to have the opportunity to participate in the Aspen Ideas Festival this summer,” Zeicher said. “Molly’s impressive accomplishments remind me why I decided to become a teacher. She is not only a role model for her peers, but also for her teachers, her community, and young people around the world.”

The Bezos Family Foundation () is a private, independent foundation that works to strengthen educational opportunities for everyone, regardless of economic circumstances and cultivate learning as a life-long process that begins at birth.