Six teens win medals in ACT-SO competition

Six Lakeview teens will be heading to Los Angeles next month to compete in the national NAACP ACT-SO “Olympics of the Mind.”

The teens, some of who attend Malverne and West Hempstead high schools, each received gold or silver medals in various categories of the Long Island ACT-SO competition they entered in April, making them all eligible to join some 1,200 medalists for around the country, including 26 from New York.

The ACT-SO competition — the name an acronym for Afro-Academic, Cultural, Technological and Scientific Olympics — is the culmination of a year-long achievement program design to recruit, stimulate and encourage high academic and cultural achievement among African-American high school students, according to the NAACP, which runs the program. There are 26 categories of competition in the science, humanities, business and performing and visual arts in the program, in which more than 260,000 young people have participated since its inception in 1977.

“Not everyone who competes receives a medal,” said Bea Bayley, president of the Lakeview NAACP. “In order to receive gold, you must have an average rating of 95 or better from the judges. It is unprecedented to have six out of six competitors receive [medals] in Lakeview and we are overjoyed that it would come at a time that we have committed ourselves to uplifting our children.”

While giving credit where it’s due — to the students — Bayley said some local residents have been key players in helping to make this happen.

“Our ACT-SO chairperson, Phyllis Tinsley, does a wonderful job with the children,” Bayley said. “We could not have achieved this without her.”

Tinsley is also the vice president of the Long Island ACT-SO program and a Lakeview Girl Scouts leader.

To celebrate the students’ achievements, the Lakeview community held a small reception at Harold Walker Park on May 7. Residents and parents took that opportunity to encourage the teens and express support as they begin their fundraising efforts to get to the national competition, according to Bayley.

“[The competitors] were very appreciative of those who came out to celebrate their local accomplishments and they are very excited about having the opportunity to compete at the national level,” Bayley said.

If they raise enough money, the six will travel to Los Angeles from July 20 to 24 and compete for more than $100,000 in cash and other prizes, including laptops.

Meet the medalists:

• Sarah Burroughs, humanities: Poetry (gold), Original Essay (silver)
• Darnell Davy, music: Contemporary (gold), Instrumental Classical (silver)
• Aalique Graham, science: Mathematics (silver)
• Kai Lancaster, performing arts: Dance (gold)
• Jordan Mayers, visual arts: Filmmaking (gold)
• Kaila Williams, science: Biology/Microbiology (gold)