Twenty-One Gold Medalists Advance to National Competition

(Naperville, IL) – Fifty-one students from 13 area high schools competed for top honors in various categories in the fields of STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics), Business, Humanities, Performing Arts and Visual Arts at the 2018 Annual DuPage County ACT-SO competition, which was held at the College of DuPage on Saturday, March 17th. ACT-SO – the Afro-Academic, Cultural, Technological and Scientific Olympics – is a year-long program that was created to encourage high academic and cultural achievement among high school students of African descent. The program features three components: mentoring, academic enrichment, and a local competition.

More than 400 attendees, including parents, ACT-SO alumni, volunteers, partners and local elected officials celebrated the hard work of the 2017-2018 DuPage County ACT-SO students at the Awards Banquet, which was held the next day at Bolingbrook Golf Club. During the banquet, seventeen high school and five middle school students from the Jr. ACT-SO program were announced as gold medal winners, along with numerous silver and bronze medalists.

According to Chairperson Dorletta Flucas Payton, this year’s total of twenty-one gold medals marks a new record for the program. “DuPage County ACT-SO has emerged as the top-performing STEM program as a result of the partnership with Argonne National Laboratory. Our students’ abilities are stretched as they perform STEM research at a high level of rigor with the guidance of their Argonne mentor.” said Flucas Payton. “In addition to STEM, our students in the Humanities and other areas also continue to shine, making DuPage County ACT-SO a major competitor at every national competition. I can’t wait to see what our students do in San Antonio!”

Argonne National Laboratory was cited as a critical part of the STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math) students’ success. This is the fourth year that Argonne and DuPage County ACT-SO have partnered for the Argonne/ACT-SO STEM Mentoring and Research Program. Each ACT-SO high school STEM student is paired with a scientist from Argonne National Laboratory in Darien, who provides mentoring and guidance for the student’s STEM research. The research takes place on site at Argonne. In addition to one-on-one mentoring, the program brings in professionals every month to expose the students to careers in various STEM areas.

The gold medal high school winners bound for the ACT-SO National Competition in San Antonio, Texas in July, are:

Category	Medal	Name	School	Grade	Area
Architecture	Gold	Jasmine  Walker	Neuqua Valley	12th	STEM
Biology	Gold	Ethan Covington	Neuqua Valley	9th	STEM
Biology	Silver	Zainab Salako	Islamic Foundation School	10th	STEM
Biology	Bronze	Imani Porter	Neuqua Valley	11th	STEM
Biology	HM	Jaylen Timms	Glenbard West	11th	STEM
Chemistry	Gold	Bryson Rivers	Bolingbrook	11th	STEM
Chemistry	Silver	Jordan Sharber	Bolingbrook	11th	STEM
Chemistry	Bronze	Ahmarea Covington	Oswego East	10th	STEM
Chemistry	HM	John Bonds III	Providence St. Mel	12th	STEM
Computer Science	Gold	Nneka Onwuta	St. Charles East	12th	STEM
Computer Science	Silver	Justin Austin	Providence St. Mel	12th	STEM
Computer Science	Bronze	James Morrissette	Bolingbrook	9th	STEM
Dramatics	Gold	Jordan Sharber	Bolingbrook	11th	Performing Arts
Dramatics	Bronze	Avia Wideman	Bolingbrook	11th	Performing Arts
Drawing	Gold	Erica Neal	Bolingbrook	11th	Visual Arts
Drawing	Silver	Amirah Yessoufou	Neuqua Valley	12th	Visual Arts
Drawing	Bronze	Alexis  Johnson	Bolingbrook	12th	Visual Arts
Earth and Space Sciences	Bronze	Kyla Wesley	Metea Valley	12th	STEM
Engineering	Gold	Justin Austin	Providence St. Mel	12th	STEM
Engineering	Silver	Joshua Lambert	Glenbard East	12th	STEM
Engineering	Bronze	Jasmine  Walker	Neuqua Valley	12th	STEM
Entrepreneurship	Gold	Imani Porter	Neuqua Valley	11th	Business
Filmmaking	HM	Veo Taylor	Bolingbrook	12th	Visual Arts
Instrumental Classical	Gold	Myles Henderson	Downers Grove South	12th	Performing Arts
Instrumental Contemporary	Silver	Myles Henderson	Downers Grove South	12th	Performing Arts
Instrumental Contemporary	Bronze	Amber Johnson	Bolingbrook	12th	Performing Arts
Mathematics	Gold	Erik Imathiu-Jones	Providence St. Mel	11th	STEM
Medicine	HM	Dominique Browder	Plainfield East	9th	STEM
Medicine and Health	Gold	Allyson Amegashie	Neuqua Valley	11th	STEM
Medicine and Health	Silver	Cameron Sharber	Bolingbrook	9th	STEM
Medicine and Health	Bronze	Micaela Wesley	Metea Valley	12th	STEM
Music Composition	Gold	Myles Henderson	Downers Grove South	12th	Humanities
Oratory	Gold	Alexis  Johnson	Bolingbrook	12th	Performing Arts
Oratory	Silver	Justin Bolden	Bolingbrook	11th	Performing Arts
Oratory	HM	Jade Harlan	Bolingbrook	10th	Performing Arts
Original Essay	Gold	Mariel Thompson	Naperville North	12th	Humanities
Original Essay	Bronze	Whitney Ford	Plainfield East	12th	Humanities
Painting	Bronze	Nicholas Brown	Chicago High School for The Arts	11th	Visual Arts
Photography	Gold	Adam Collins	Plainfield East	11th	Visual Arts
Photography	Silver	Noah Jones	Downers Grove South	9th	Visual Arts
Photography	Bronze	Daiyah Reeves	Bolingbrook	9th	Visual Arts
Physics	Gold	Erik Imathiu-Jones	Providence St. Mel	11th	STEM
Physics	HM	Andrew McElroy	Bolingbrook	9th	STEM
Poetry - Written	Gold	Avia Wideman	Bolingbrook	11th	Humanities
Poetry - Written	Silver	Jamia Chrusfield	Glenbard East	12th	Humanities
Poetry Performance	Gold	Avia Wideman	Bolingbrook	11th	Performing Arts
Sculpture	Gold	Alexis  Johnson	Bolingbrook	12th	Visual Arts
Short Story	Gold	Zainab Salako	Islamic Foundation School	10th	Humanities
Vocal Contemporary	Gold	Riziki Covington	Neuqua Valley	12th	Performing Arts

The Seventeen DuPage County ACT-SO High School Gold Medalists that were awarded twenty-one gold medals. Photographer - Michael Henderson, Sr.

The Jr. ACT-SO Middle School Team Competition was held on March 3, 2018 at Glenbard South High School. The junior gold medal team, dubbed “Solution Squad”, was coached by Faiza Coleman-Salako and Theresa Purchase. Their Technical Mentors was George Shores. The team was comprised of the following five students:

• LaTyla Goodwin – Kamarek MS – 7th Grade
• Miles Gray – Troy Middle School – 8th Grade
• Kabreah Gunter – Aux Sable Middle School – 8th Grade
• Dawud Salako – Islamic Foundation School – 5th Grade
• Auri Watson – Jane Addams Middle School – 7th Grade 

The Solution Squad Jr. ACT-SO Gold Medal Team with their coaches and technical mentor at the Awards Banquet. Photographer - Michael Henderson

DuPage County ACT-SO is a program of the DuPage County Branch of the NAACP. Since its 1979 inception, the program has partnered with the College of DuPage (COD). COD and other key sponsors and partners including Argonne National Laboratory; Glenbard District 87/Glenbard South High School; The Village of Bolingbrook and its mayor, Roger C. Claar; Jack and Jill of America West Suburban Chicago Chapter; Dr. Benny and Mrs. Kim White; Comcast; and the West Towns(IL) chapter of The Links, Inc.; were all recognized at the banquet for their support of the program. 

The next step for the high school gold medalists is to prepare for the National ACT-SO Competition, which will take place in San Antonio, Texas in July, 2018. There, the DuPage County gold medalists will compete against approximately 600 other gold medalists from around the nation. The not-for-profit organization is now shifting to focus to raise the rest of the funds needed to send the gold medalists to the National ACT-SO Competition (about $1,000 per student). Donations can be made on their website: www.dupageact-so.org.

The complete list of 2018 Local Competition winners for the High School ACT-SO and Jr. ACT-SO programs will be available at www.dupageact-so.org or by contacting Dorletta Payton, Chairperson at Dorletta.Payton@dupageact-so.org.

About the DuPage County ACT-SO Program

The Afro-Academic, Cultural, Technological and Scientific Olympics (ACT-SO) is a major youth initiative of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). Founded in 1978, by the renowned author and journalist, Vernon Jarrett, ACT-SO provides a forum through which African American youth demonstrate academic, artistic, and scientific prowess and expertise, thereby gaining the same recognition often reserved for entertainers and athletes.

ACT-SO "The Olympics of the Mind" is rooted in the firm conviction that African-Americans can succeed and compete at the same or superior levels as their counterparts in classrooms, boardrooms and laboratories across this nation and aboard. The objective of ACT-SO is to prepare, recognize and reward African-American youth who exemplify scholastic and artistic excellence. The ACT-SO goals are:

• To mobilize the adult community for the promotion of academics and artistic excellence among African American students.
  
• To recognize academic achievement among African American students in a manner commensurate with the recognition afforded athletics.
  
• To provide and assist African-American students with the necessary skills and tools to establish goals and acquire the confidence and training to make a successful contribution to society.
  

NAACP branches and youth units throughout the country conduct annual competitions for students in grades 9 - 12 in the categories of Entrepreneurship, STEM, Humanities, Performing and Visual Arts. The top winners from the local competitions then compete against the winners from other cities at the national ACT-SO finals held during the NAACP's Annual Convention in July.

DuPage County ACT-SO’s middle school Jr. ACT-SO program provides a platform for 6th – 8th grade students to improve their analytical, problem-solving, and STEM-related competencies while building their social, presentation and teamwork skills. The program also brings a greater understanding of social and business issues on a local and global level. The students from learn about researching, technical writing, programming web pages, team building and public speaking.

The national ACT-SO high school program has helped nearly 300,000 young people open new doors to learning and define career paths since it was founded 40 years ago. Today there are more than 150 ACT-SO chapters around the country helping youth discover and develop their academic and artistic talents.

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