The Chattanooga Hamilton County NAACP will announce and award winners of the 2009 ACT-SO Competition on Saturday at the ACT-SO Awards Ceremony. The ceremony will be held at the EPB Building at 6:30 p.m. and is free and open to the public.
ACT-SO is a year-long enrichment program designed to recruit, stimulate, improve and encourage high academic and cultural achievement among African-American high school students. The ACT-SO program centers around the dedication and commitment of community volunteers and business leaders who serve as mentors and coaches to promote academic and artistic excellence among African-American
students.
There are 25 categories of competition in the sciences, humanities, performing and visual arts. ACT-SO is an acronym for Afro-Academic, Cultural, Technological and Scientific Olympics.
Vernon Jarrett, a renowned author and journalist, initiated the idea of a program that would promote and reward academic achievers the same way sports heroes are honored. The first national ACT-SO competition was held in 1978 in Portland Oregon.
High school students of African descent, who are citizens of the United States, enrolled in grades 9-12 and are amateurs in the categories of competition are able to participate.
The ACT-SO program is intended to be a learning experience, first and foremost. The focus of a viable and effective local ACT-SO program is on enrichment and mentorship. Students work with ACT-SO mentors who help them develop projects throughout the year. Local ACT-SO programs also provide ACT-SO students with enrichment opportunities, such as workshops, tutorials, and field trips. The benefits ACT-SO students receive from the enrichment and mentorship components include
substantial assistance toward the development of their ACT-SO projects and tools to assist them throughout their education. The local competition serves to showcase the hard work students have put
in all year long. Students receive medals and prizes provided by the local and regional sponsors and contributors. ACT-SO Students who receive gold medals on the local level then compete at the National
Competition where they receive scholarships and other rewards provided by national sponsors.
The categories for ACT-SO Sciences are Architecture, Biology, Chemistry, Computer Science, Mathematics, Physics/Electronics, Physics/Energy, and Physics/General; for Humanities are Music Composition, Original Essay, Playwriting, and Spoken Word; for Visual Arts are Drawing, Painting, Photography, Sculpture, and Filmmaking/Video; for Business are Entrepreneurship; for the Performing Arts are Dance, Dramatics, Music Instrumental/Classical, Music Instrumental/Contemporary, Music Vocal/Classical, Music Vocal/Contemporary, and Oratory.
Students may compete in up to three categories.