Ten students from LBUSD earned gold medals in this year’s Afro-Academic Cultural, Technological and Scientific Olympics (ACT-SO). Seven out of those ten were Poly students.
Poly’s seven winners include senior Krystal Ball in the short story category, senior Neyah Barbee in the drawing category, Poly alumni Nia Barbee in the categories of instrumental music and classical poetry, senior Kandise Le Blanc in vocal classical and contemporary music, senior Zori Ray in entrepreneurship, senior Monica Rodriguez in painting, and senior Amber Russell in instrumental contemporary music.
The ACT-SO is a program in which African American high school students work with mentors over the course of a year to promote and experience high academic and cultural achievement. During this enrichment program, each student creates a project that becomes eligible to win a medal in one of 25 artistic or academic categories.
ACT-SO participants are empowered and enriched with opportunities to attend workshops, tutorials, and field trips. The competition provides valuable skills that are applicable beyond ACT-SO.
The competition’s ten gold medalists have displayed their hard work on a local level, but will take it one step further by entering their projects into the National ACT-SO Competition next July at the Annual NAACP Convention.
“I’ve been participating in ACTSO for 3 years now and it’s really become a highlight of my time in high school. I get to travel with my friends to compete for art and English, my two favorite subjects. Not only is it fun, but I also know that it is going to help me in the future. I get better at my crafts and get to know other kids across the country who are striving to do the same. I would recommend it to everyone I know,” said Barbee.
Any high school student of African descent who is an amateur in any of the 25 competition categories is encouraged to join ACT-SO. Applications are available online at www.actso.org/howtoapply.shtml.
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