Philadelphia High School Students Heading Off To Atlantic City For ACT-SO Awards At NAACP Convention
ATLANTIC CITY, N.J. (CBS) – Continuing its annual tradition, the NAACP will once again host the Afro-Academic, Cultural, Technological and Scientific Olympics, also known as the ACT-SO awards ceremony during its annual national convention.
Nine students from schools throughout Philadelphia will be competing and CBS3 caught up with this talented group of young people before they left for Atlantic City.
Some ACT-SO high school students from various schools around Philadelphia are fired up and ready to go. They will be competing against some of the best and brightest students from around the country at the NAACP National Convention in Atlantic City.
"ACT-SO is an acronym for Afro Academic, Cultural, Technology, Scientific Olympics of the mind," Veronica Norris, chairperson of NAACP Philly ACT-SO, said. "We are dynamic, we are the bomb."
The students left Martin Luther King High School Thursday morning, going for gold, silver and bronze medals and scholarships, in everything from STEM to visual arts, business and performing arts categories.
"This is a beautiful backdrop for ACT-SO," Norris said. "99% go into higher education."
"I'm gonna be singing in the vocal contemporary category," Taylor Moody, an ACT-SO student, said. "I'm very excited."
While Moody hopes her voice leads her to victory, Nahshon Devose is relying on his talents as a violinist.
"In the competition, I'm gonna be playing the violin, working on it for the past couple of months," Devose, another ACT-SO student, said.
"It's important that we show what our students are capable of, what they are able to do," Catherine Hicks, Philadelphia NAACP Branch President, said.
Boundless talent heading into a national competition,.ready to bring home the gold for Philadelphia.
The ACT-SO competition will be held on Sunday during the National NAACP Convention in Atlantic City.
Meanwhile, Vice President Kamala Harris said she will be attending the convention to present her remarks Monday. The vice president will also hold a roundtable with New Jersey legislators to discuss reproductive rights.
CBS3 will be watching it very closely and bring you the latest on how our Philly area students did.
