July 18 -21, 2019 the Detroit Marriott at the Renaissance Center was the setting for the five days of workshops, ceremonies, displays, and competition. The Awards Ceremony was held at the fabulous Fox Theatre on the final day. This year’s theme was “Freedom to Create, Courage to Pursue, Promise to Thrive”.
Students Connor Harris, Jason Johnson, Jr., and Chika Nkwocha represented the Akron NAACP ACT-SO competition. The categories they competed in were Microbiology; Contemporary and Classical Piano; and Drawing and Painting, respectively.
The students participated in the local ACT-SO competition where they all earned the Gold Medal status; this enabled them to compete at the National Level.
Connor received the Bronze Medal with his presentation of “Role of EPHA6 in Africa-American Colorectal Cancer”. Chika won the Silver Medal for her drawing titled “Displacement, Disownment. Discovery”.
The Akron NAACP president is Mrs. Judi Hill and the ACT-SO chair is Mrs. Hazel Malone Congratulations to our contestants, committee volunteers, families and supporters.
NAACP’s Afro-Academic, Cultural, Technological and Scientific Olympics (ACT-SO) program was conceived in 1976 by Vernon Jarrett. It was officially sponsored by the NAACP in 1977.
It’s goals are to encourage and recognize academic achievement of African-American Students; to promote excellence and highlight academic achievement as well as, support the accomplishments of these students; and to encourage communities to become involved in working as partners in the quest for scholastic achievement by serving as mentors, fundraisers, sponsors and organizers.
ACT-SO has approximately 200 programs nationally and over the past 30 years 200,000 have participated at local and national levels.