STUDENT TO BE FEATURED ON "48 HOURS" TONIGHT

The bright lights of the national media will be focused on Old Dominion student Chris Robertson in an episode of CBS News' "48 Hours" to be broadcast tonight.

Robertson, a native of Yorktown and a chemistry major, will be the subject of another installment of the program's "Class of 2000" series, which has followed a cross-section of students from across the country since 1996.

The show will air at 10 p.m. Thursday, June 22 on WTKR-TV (Ch. 3).

Robertson, who just completed his second year at Old Dominion, was first interviewed for the program in 1996. Though he had hoped to receive his high school diploma that year, he admits drug problems put him two years behind in school.

Thanks to his rehabilitation, however, Robertson now appears to have his life back on track. He graduated from Mid-Atlantic Academy with a 4.0 GPA. In addition to attending classes at Old Dominion, he works at a Newport News Starbucks store and at a local teen counseling center.

Robertson last year qualified for a Governor's Technology Scholarship, which provides $4,000 a year for up to four years for study in technology-related fields. High school students must have a 3.25 GPA and a minimum 1100 SAT score with a math sub-score of 590 to qualify for the scholarship.

For its latest piece, "48 Hours" producers visited Robertson last month to shoot videotape of him on campus. A reporter was also scheduled to interview him on the same picnic bench outside his mother's house where they first met four years ago.

"I'm so impressed that Old Dominion took a look at him in a way that allowed him to matriculate," said Robertson's mother, Susan Smith. "He had so many gaps, I've been so amazed he's been able to do what he has."