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Oct. 2017 Newsletter (pdf) 

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While in high school, Tavis Reed envisioned a future designing video games, but after participating in the Argonne Afro-Academic, Cultural, Technological and Scientific Olympics (ACT-SO) High School Research Program, he hit the reset button.

Now a sophomore at Washington University in St. Louis, Reed is studying chemical engineering and computer science, and hopes to one day create a clean energy business....

To view whole article on newswise.com>>

Every year, the DuPage County ACT-SO Chapter hosts a Community Leaders’ Breakfast to update community leaders on our student and organizational progress and successes. Superintendents, Principals, Pastors, Community and Business leaders are in attendance. They partner with us in our fundraising, marketing, and student & volunteer recruitment. On August 11, 2017, several of our national Gold medalist students and Jr. ACT-SO students; along with Dr. Ann Rondeau- President of College of DuPage (COD), Shahe Bagdasarian (Glenbard East H.S. Principal), and others gave remarks. During the breakfast, we were surprised and delighted with an announcement that our COD partners will provide an annual full-ride scholarship to an ACT-SO student.

September Enrichment

New this year …an Enrichment Fair!!  During the monthly general session on Saturday, September 16 starting at 2:00 PM in the College of DuPage Student Resource Center (SRC) 2000, students and parents will have the opportunity to view the completed projects from most of the ACT-SO competition categories. There will be booths for Business, Visual Arts, STEM, Humanities, and Performing Arts staffed by students and/or facilitators to answer questions about the category. There will be live performances from previous Performing Arts competitors. A Parent Resource table will be staffed by seasoned parents to help answer questions that other parents may have. The specific category enrichment categories will follow as usual after the completion of the fair. Those sessions will finish at 5:00 PM. Whether you’re new or returning, this is a great opportunity to ask questions about any new category of which you were curious.

Orientation

The next orientation for the high school program will occur on September 16 from 12:00 to 1:30 PM in SRC 2000 at the College of DuPage located at 425 Fawell Blvd., Glen Ellyn, IL. Orientation for Jr. ACT-SO will be held during the same time at Glenbard South High School located at 23W200 Butterfield Rd., Glen Ellyn, room 308. All ACT-SO participants, whether new or returning, must attend an orientation session.

Argonne Research Program

Argonne National Laboratory continues their partnership with ACT-SO with The Argonne ACT-SO High School Research Program’s (ARP). The program matches Ph.D. and/or other graduate level Argonne researchers with highly motivated ACT-SO students to perform imaginative research with a high level of rigor in a safe manner. Students interested in participating must have attended an ACT-SO orientation and registered by September 16. In addition to the ACT-SO enrichment sessions on the 3rd Saturday of each month, the Argonne program meets on the 1st Saturday of each month. To get a head start on conducting a literature search for research ideas, use Google Scholar (http://scholar.google.com/) and search on topics that interest you. For example, try searching on “gene splicing”. The search will return several articles, which you can then read to become familiar with the subject matter and possibly spark an idea for your project. 

(Naperville, IL) – Students from the DuPage County ACT-SO program led the nation in medals awarded in STEM categories at last Sunday’s 39th Annual National NAACP ACT-SO Awards Ceremony that was held in Baltimore, Maryland. The students won the top medals awarded in the categories of Chemistry, Computer Science, Earth and Space Sciences and Physics. DuPage County ACT-SO students also the bronze medal in the Engineering category and the silver medal in Music Composition, bringing DuPage County ACT-SO into a tie for the second highest number of total national medals awarded, a total of six. The medalists will each receive cash prizes ranging from $1,000-$2,000 and were given a Samsung Chromebook Plus at the awards reception.

The awards ceremony was hosted by Cornelius Smith, one of the stars of the ABC hit show Scandal. Smith is an ACT-SO alum, having competed at the local and national levels in the category of Music Vocal Contemporary when he was a high school student.

“DuPage County ACT-SO has emerged as one of the nation’s top-performing programs as a result of the dedication of its students, parents and volunteers,” said Teresa Haley, President of the Illinois State Conference NAACP. “The ability to have in-depth, hands-on exploration of potential career areas is so important as students prepare for college and career. ACT-SO provides its students the ability to explore areas that they have talent for or interest in within a supportive environment.”

The medalists were part of the group of 14 area high school students that won local gold medals at the DuPage County ACT-SO that was held in March. The students vied for honors against more than 700 other local gold medalists from around the country at the National ACT-SO competition that was held on Friday. DuPage County ACT-SO was one of three programs in the nation that was awarded a National ACT-SO Student Engagement Award for having the most students competing at the national competition.

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 primary focus of the program is the development of projects for competition in categories in the areas of STEM, Business, Humanities, Performing Arts and Visual Arts. Mentoring and academic enrichment are key objectives in this endeavor.

The program owes much of its success as the leading ACT-SO STEM program in the nation to its relationship with Argonne National Laboratory. 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 high school ACT-SO STEM student is paired with a scientist from Argonne National Laboratory in Darien, which provides mentoring, guidance and facilities for the students’ research. In addition to one-on-one mentoring, the program brings in professionals every month to expose the students to careers in various STEM areas.

Middle and high school students that want to participate in DuPage County ACT-SO’s 20172018 academic year program should plan on attending one of the orientation sessions that begin the weekend of August 26th. The information flyer is available on the program’s website: www.dupageact-so.org.

DuPage County ACT-SO is a program of the DuPage County Branch of the NAACP. Since its 1979 inception, the local program has partnered with the College of DuPage. Key sponsors and partners of the program include Argonne National Laboratory, Glenbard High School District 87, Glenbard South High School, the McDonald’s Corporation and Comcast.

DuPage County ACT-SO 2017 National Award Winners

More About the ACT-SO Program 

The Afro-Academics, 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. The objective of ACT-SO is to prepare, recognize and reward African-American youth who exemplify scholastic and artistic excellence. NAACP branches and youth units throughout the country conduct annual competitions for students in grades 9 - 12. Gold medalists from the local competitions then compete against gold medalists from other cities around the nation at the National ACT-SO Competition that is held during the NAACP's Annual Convention in July.

[Download Press Release (pdf)]

InVest is a unique program that educates high school and college students about insurance, financial services and risk management. InVest assists in aiding students to pursue a career in the industry. Students are introduced to a wide range of exciting insurance professions through the use of course books, guest speakers, and learn about insurance coverages. [More Information]

This is a great summer camp opportunity for our students.  Please note that there is a VERY QUICK TURNAROUND, so you need to respond quickly for this excellent opportunity! Deadline is Friday May 12th.

Please submit the required information via email to Ms. Brenda Davis at Brenda.Davis@dupageact-so.org.

"Does it ever get old?" The answer is a definite no based on the comments from seasoned ACT-SO Chairperson Dorletta Flucas-Payton, "After a week of crazy preparation there is always a surge of excitement.  You see the students and their growth and you are excited about competition day." This sentiment is echoed by an exuberant grandmother in attendance to cheer on her sixth grandchild and also volunteers who return year after year. The March 18 high school competition resulted in a record for the DuPage County ACT-SO program with 18 gold medal winners advancing to compete for a national award.

ACT-SO Competition High School Students

Medal Category Full Name School Grade Gold Music Composition Kyla Denwood Willowbrook 12 Gold Original Essay Mariel Thompson Naperville North 11 Gold Poetry Written Avia Wideman Bolingbrook 10 Gold Drawing Amirah Yessoufou Neuqua Valley 11 Gold Painting Amirah Yessoufou Neuqua Valley 11 Gold Entrepreneurship Noah Starkey Wheaton Academy 11 Gold Biology/Microbiology Jaylen Timms Glenbard West 10 Gold Chemistry/Biochemistry Cristal Johnson Bolingbrook 12 Gold Computer Science Whitney Ford Plainfield East 11 Gold Earth & Space Science Riziki Covington Neuqua Valley 11 Gold Engineering Joshua Lambert Glenbard East 11 Gold Medicine & Health Allyson Amegashie Neuqua Valley North 10 Gold Physics Jalen Crump Air Force Academy 11 Gold Dramatics Jordan Sharber Bolingbrook 10 Gold Music: Instrumental Classical Kyla Denwood Willowbrook 12 Gold Music Vocal Classical Ariana Smith Timothy Christian 12 Gold Music Vocal Contemporary Riziki Covington Neuqua Valley 11 Gold Oratory Donavan Kirk Bolingbrook 12 Silver Poetry Written Whitney Ford Plainfield East 11 Silver Painting Camron Brady Timothy Christian 12 Silver Sculpture Kayla Marshall Bolingbrook 11 Silver Biology/Microbiology Imani Porter Neuqua Valley 10 Silver Chemistry/Biochemistry Mariel M.J. Thompson Naperville North 11 Silver Computer Science Nneka Onwuta  St. Charles East 11 Silver Medicine & Health Arkayla Burkes Plainfield East 10 Silver Physics Kevin Bryson Plainfield East 12 Silver Oratory Alexis Johnson Bolingbrook 11 Silver Poetry Performance Avia Wideman Bolingbrook 10 Bronze Original Essay Veo Taylor Bolingbrook 9 Bronze Poetry Written Mariel M.J. Thompson Naperville North 11 Bronze Short Story Rachel Odame Bolingbrook 9 Bronze Drawing Camron Brady Timothy Christian 12 Bronze Painting Alexis Johnson  Bolingbrook 11 Bronze Sculpture Nicholas Brown Chicago High School for the Arts 10 Bronze Biology/Microbiology Erica Brooks Oswego East 12 Bronze Chemistry/Biochemistry Symone Robinson Bolingbrook 11 Bronze Computer Science Reaghan Young Neuqua Valley 10 Bronze Engineering Veronica Lee Downers Grove North 12 Bronze Medicine & Health Trey Whitaker Neuqua Valley 11 Bronze Physics John Williams Bolingbrook 9 Bronze Music Instrumental Contemporary Paige Lumpkin Glenbard East 11 Bronze Music Vocal Contemporary Ariana Smith Timothy Christian 12 Bronze Oratory Kyla Denwood Willowbrook 12 HM Photography Adam Collins Plainfield East 10 HM Engineering Bryson Rivers Bolingbrook 10 HM Music Vocal Contemporary Eva Martinez Bolingbrook 10

The Jr. competition was held on March 4.  Congratulations to the first, second and third place medal teams. 

• Gold Medal - awarded to the Scientific Six (Dominique Browder, Jeremiah Coleman-Smith, Ethan Covington, Aisha Diop, Oumar Diop, Raina Ford, Natalie Brzoski (Coach), Tyrone Slayton (Assist. Coach), and Mike Edwards (Technical Mentor). Their project dealt with climate change.
   
• Silver Medal - awarded to the Identity Theft Stoppers (Arianna Burkes, Erin Howard, Jordan Howard, Joel Anyan, Paul Scott, Ardella Burkes (Coach/Technical Mentor) and Janice Stewart (Coach). The team focused on stopping identity theft.
   
• Bronze Medal - awarded to Zealous Achievers (Jaylin Gates, Genesis Gates, Kevin Jones, Kendyl Donald, Kennedy Donald, Miles Gray, Peggy Johnson (Coach) and Malik Inkatha (Technical Mentor). This team examined texting while driving.