Baltimore Students Win Awards At NAACP 'ACT-SO' Competition

BALTIMORE (WJZ) -- It's known as the "Olympics of the Mind." The NAACP announces the winners of its "ACT-SO" competition.

Mary Bubala reports there are several gold and bronze medalists from the Baltimore region.

These outstanding students represented Baltimore City and County at the 36th annual National ACT-SO competition, known as the Afro-Academic Cultural, Technological and Scientific Olympics for high school students across the country.

It was 17-year-old Chelsey Luster's beautiful photographs of her fellow students at the Carver Center for Arts and Technology that won her a gold medal locally and a bronze at the national competition.

"I focused on them relaxing and reading and doing every day activities. Then I went more into dealing with social issues and how they have to be really thin and how society puts a lot of pressure on them to look a certain way," Luster said.

Darius Jackson,19, is a recent graduate of the Baltimore School for the Arts. He won bronze at nationals and a gold medal at the local "ACT-SO" competition.

"It really humbled me to know that all the hard work that I have done, it's paid off," Jackson said.

And then there's 14-year-old Evan Davis, a rising sophomore at Connexions High School in Baltimore City. He captured two gold medals with this performance.

"You women are always saying there are no good men left, well, take a good look around because here I am, and he's 14," Davis said.

The competition was part of the 105th annual NAACP Convention in Las Vegas. The students also walked away with cash prizes and computer tablets.

"ACT-SO" was founded by journalist, the late Vernon Jarrett in 1978.

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