There’s much we can learn from today’s youth. They can offer us fresh perspectives, as well as new ways of presenting ideas, which means adults can find themselves challenged and inspired by the viewpoints of a younger generation when they’re willing to learn from children and teens.

We’ve seen this time and time again in the columns written by reporters with 8-18 Media — a journalism and leadership program for youth whose parent organization is the Upper Peninsula Children’s Museum — that are regularly published in the Journal’s weekend Youth section.

Through these columns, our editors and our readers learned about the hopes, dreams, fears and challenges that young people have faced during the COVID-19 pandemic. The young writers have shared their stories about everything from overcoming obstacles — such as major surgery, the death of a pet or adapting to the COVID-19 pandemic — to more joyful experiences, such as a favorite vacation they took or a wonderful holiday spent with a friend.

No matter the topic, these columns provide us with crucial, priceless insights into what it’s like to be a child or teenager in today’s world.

It’s easy to forget what it’s like to be young — and even easier to forget that you’ve forgotten what it’s like to be young — which means these perspectives are especially important for adults to read and consider.

Due to this, we’re thrilled to ring in a new era of the ongoing partnership between 8-18 Media today with a front-page article by 8-18 Media Youth Reporter Anja McBride, 16, as this is the first of such news articles to be written by 8-18 Media and published in The Mining Journal.

McBride’s article tackles a notable topic that is certain to have historic value: a local National Guard member’s deployment to President Joe Biden’s Jan. 20 inauguration in Washington. McBride covers this topic in a powerful, tactful and objective manner consistent with a seasoned journalist — which, in many respects, she is, as McBride has spent several years writing for 8-18 Media.

We commend McBride for a job well done, especially when we here at the Journal know firsthand the challenges of the process, from finding a topic and willing sources, to conducting an interview, to taking photos of your subject, to finally, writing, rewriting and editing the finished project.

We hope our readers enjoy McBride’s article and the upcoming 8-18 Media news articles as much as we do, as we all have so much to learn from these young writers.