High Life A WEEKLY FORUM FOR HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS : Jon Voight Lends Hand to Shelter

Jon Voight, an Academy Award-winning actor for his role as a physically disabled Vietnam veteran in the 1978 movie “Coming Home,” recently teamed up with TH&M; Advertising of Irvine to narrate a videotaped fund-raising message for the Huntington Youth Shelter in Huntington Beach.

The 12-minute video, in which a former runaway teen-ager recounts her story, was produced to help create an awareness of the increasing number of homeless teen-agers and lack of facilities to handle them in Orange County.

Students from the Marina High School drama department served as extras in the video, which will be broadcast on cable channels and shown to foundations, service groups and businesses throughout Southern California.

The video, which took more than 15 months to produce, was written and directed by Patrick Kersey, executive vice president of TH&M; and a volunteer at the shelter. The Huntington Beach Police Department provided a helicopter and canine unit for taped sequences, in addition to donating its video production facilities and the services of camera-woman and editor Jody Brencic.

When completed, the Huntington Youth Center will provide 18 beds and a full-time counseling staff.

Anyone interested in viewing the video or contributing to the Huntington Youth Shelter may call Kersey at (714) 756-8326.

Research shows six major factors push teen-agers to drop out of school, according to a survey of 24,600 students in the National Education Longitudinal Study that was reported in a recent issue of NEA Today, the newspaper of the National Education Assn.

Here they are, along with the percentage of eighth-graders who are subject to each--and so are more likely than most to fail in school and drop out.

* Single-parent family--22%

* Family income less than $15,000--21%

* Often at home alone--14%

* Uneducated parents--11%

* Sibling who dropped out--10%

* Limited English proficiency--2%

In celebration of the 200th anniversary of the Bill of Rights to the Constitution, “What the Bill of Rights Means to Me” is the theme of The Times/Dodgers essay contest.

All high school seniors in Orange, Los Angeles, Riverside, Ventura, San Bernardino, Kern, Santa Barbara and San Luis Obispo counties are eligible to participate, with each of nine winners receiving a GoldStar computer, a monitor, a Dodger jacket, centennial yearbook, 100th anniversary videotape and pin and dinner for two at the Stadium Club at the Dodgers-Montreal Expos game on May 15.

The winning essays will be published in a special Times section on June 2. Entries, which are limited to 500 words, must be postmarked no later than April 26. Please see the advertisement in The Times sports section for entry forms.

“I see parallels between cowboys and rock bands: We ride into a town . . . steal their money, and before the cops catch us, we’re gone. And I get paid for that.”

--Jon Bon Jovi