NAACP NYC ACT-SO Preps Black Teens for 18th Annual Olympics of the Mind - First Season Since Passing of National Creator Vernon Jarrett
Chapter of the Largest Academic Promotion of Black Youth in America – NYC ACT-SO – Preps, Seeks Students for April 23 “Olympics of the Mind”; Weekly Enrichment Workshops Polish Pupils for 18TH Annual NYC Competition; 2005 Season the First Since Passing of National Program Creator Vernon Jarrett
New York, NY (PRWEB) February 25, 2005 -- Some 200 enthusiastic Black high
school students from throughout the New York metropolitan area will converge
under one roof to showcase their talents in the humanities, arts, and sciences
at the 18th annual Olympics of the Mind competition set for Saturday, April 23,
2005 from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. at Manhattan's Martin Luther King Jr. High School,
122 Amsterdam Avenue, between 65th and 66th streets. The New York City chapter
of the NAACP Afro-Academic, Cultural, Technological and Scientific Olympics (NYC
ACT-SO), proud sponsor of the Olympics of the Mind, also will host the
competition's VIP Reception & Awards Ceremony to follow on Monday, April 25
at Con Edison, 4 Irving Place in Lower Manhattan. The VIP Reception (invitation
only) will be from 5 p.m. to 6:45 p.m., and the Awards Ceremony (open to the
public with ticket purchase) will be from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m. With 150 chapters
nationwide, NAACP ACT-SO, one of America's best-kept secrets, is the largest
program dedicated to academic achievement of Black youth in the
country.
The 2005 NAACP ACT-SO season is the first since last year's
passing of Vernon Jarrett, who created the national program in 1977. Mr. Jarrett
was best known as a legendary award-winning journalist, civil rights activist,
and co-founder of the National Association of Black Journalists Inc. NYC ACT-SO
will uphold and expand Mr. Jarrett's legacy through its annual student
enrichment and fundraising activities.
"We dedicate this year to my dear
friend Vernon," said NYC ACT-SO Executive Director Anton Tomlinson, who founded
the NYC ACT-SO chapter in 1987 with Benjamin Duster IV, a direct descendant of
justice crusader and journalist Ida B. Wells. "I want NYC ACT-SO to live up to
Vernon's vision. In his honor, this program will be the best and an even more
inspiring, effective academic program for Black high school students in New York
City."
There is still time for interested New York City high school
students to apply for the NYC ACT-SO Olympics of the Mind, in which participants
compete in 25 categories: Humanities - music composition, original essay,
playwriting, poetry, and business/entrepreneurship; Performing Arts - dance,
dramatics, music instrumental/classical, music instrument/contemporary, music
vocal/classical, music vocal/contemporary, and oratory; Sciences - architecture,
biology, chemistry, computer science, mathematics, physics/electronics,
physics/energy and physics/general; and Visual Arts - drawing, painting,
photography, sculpture, and filmmaking/video.
In honor of Vernon
Jarrett, NYC ACT-SO plans to add a journalism category to the Humanities
offerings in 2006. The top three winners in each category receive a gold medal
with $500 in cash, silver medal with $300, and bronze medal with $200. The gold
medallists will advance (among 1,200 gold medallists from local competitions
across the country) to the national NAACP ACT-SO Olympics of the Mind to be held
July 7-11 in Milwaukee, where prizes are a gold medal with $2,000; silver with
$1,500; and bronze with $1,000. Every national medallist also receives a
fully-loaded laptop computer!
More than 98 percent of NYC-ACT-SO students
graduate from high school and 85 percent go on to college. Participants' road to
success and the Olympics of the Mind competition begins at the start of the
school year with intensive enrichment workshops beginning in November. A
kick-off rally is held in January, and the enrichment workshops, conducted on
Saturdays at Manhattan's P.S. 84, 32 W. 92nd Street (between Columbus Avenue and
Central Park West), continue through April. The workshops are led by coaches who
are accomplished professionals in the competition categories and help students
choose and develop individual projects. NYC ACT-SO is a volunteer-driven and led
organization. All coaches, mentors, judges, and others, therefore, donate their
time to work with students. The chapter is seeking more judges for this season's
Olympics of the Mind. Since its inception, NYC ACT-SO has mentored more than
4,500 students through coaching sessions, the Olympics of the Mind, and other
enrichment activities, which include field trips to Broadway plays, museums, and
cultural centers; college admissions workshops; studies broad; and
internships.
"The workshops help the students present their best at the
Olympics of the Mind," said Barbara Richards, chairperson of the NYC ACT-SO
Workshop Committee for the past decade. "But the workshops are not just for
preparing the students for competition. These sessions truly enhance their
lives, fuel their dreams, and, in some cases, help discover hidden
talents."
Olympics of the Mind organizers agree the coaches are the
backbone of the program.
"Without the coaches, there would be no NYC
ACT-SO," Ms. Richards said. "They are the ones who elicit excellence from the
students. We've had alumni who have returned to serve as coaches and volunteers.
This is the result of the interaction that they had years before with a caring
individual. It's also a give and take - the kids learn from the coaches and the
coaches learn from the students."
Presented with pageantry and
excitement, the Olympics of the Mind offers young participants a singular
experience and level of recognition that can greatly impact their lives long
after their high school years. Just ask some of today's highly-accomplished NYC
ACT-SO alumni, who have gone on to become everything from doctors to museum
curators to world-renowned musicians!
"ACT-SO helped me to excel, and
that made all the difference in my career, and more importantly, my life," said
NYC ACT-SO alumnus and saxophonist sensation Mike Phillips, who won a silver
medal in the music instrumental/contemporary category. Since graduation, he has
toured with Stevie Wonder, given a command performance for Nelson Mandela in
Johannesburg, South Africa, and toured with Prince's 2004 Musicology Tour. Mr.
Phillips is signed to Hidden Beach Recordings and will be releasing his
sophomore album in May 2005. He also is the first non-athlete to secure an
endorsement contract with Nike.
"Even if you don't win a medal in ACT-SO,
you get to determine how far you go afterwards," Mr. Phillips said to a
captivated audience of young hopefuls at the NYC ACT-SO Kick-Off Rally held in
January. "I got to this level through hard work. Identify your calling or your
gift, but know that it's not free. You have to cultivate it. You control your
destiny. So don't just play 'not to lose.' Play to win."
History is
moving forward at NYC ACT-SO, just as Vernon Jarrett first intended. New York
City, America, and the world are taking notice!
"We have great respect
for your organization and great respect for you," said New York City Council
Member Gale Brewer, who encouraged students at the Kick-Off Rally to shine. "I
support you wholeheartedly."
For more information about NYC ACT-SO, the
Olympics of the Mind, Awards Ceremony tickets, or becoming a student competitor
or a volunteer judge, the general public can call NYC ACT-SO at 212-666-9348, or
212-666-7212 or visit www.actso.org.
The NAACP NYC ACT-SO program, a 501(c)
(3) volunteer organization funded by public and private donations, is dedicated
to promoting academic and cultural excellence among Black high school students.
NYC ACT-SO would like to thank its corporate, foundation, government and
individual supporters: Anheuser-Busch Companies; Gloria Benfield Scholarship
Fund; Bloomberg; Gale Brewer, Council Member NYC District 6; Capital Cities/ABC,
Inc.; Citigroup; The Coca Cola Company; Con Edison; CS First Boston Foundation
Trust; Daimler Chrysler Foundation; C. Virginia Fields, Manhattan Borough
President; Fund for the City of New York, Glickenhaus Foundation; Greater New
York Links; JPMorgan Chase; Independence Community Foundation; Merrill Lynch
& Co. Foundation, Inc.; Morgan Stanley; NBC; Pfizer Inc.; Rudin Foudation;
S.C. Fundamental, LLC; State Farm Insurance; Watson Rice LLP; The Williams
Capital Group, LLP; Western Union First Data; Peter Collery; Connie Kaiserman;
Duncan MacMillan; Tom Miglis; Tom Secunda; Anton Tomlinson; and Lori-Ann Wynter.
To learn more about NYC ACT-SO, visit us on the web at www.actso.org.
NAACP New
York City ACT-SO
Weekly Enrichment Workshops, 18thAnnual Olympics of the Mind
2005 & Awards Ceremony
Fact Sheet
A One-of-A Kind
Competition:
Presented with pageantry and excitement, the Olympics of the
Mind gives Black high school students an incomparable opportunity to showcase
their talents in 25 humanities, arts, and sciences categories. The Olympics of
the Mind is the signature event of the NAACP New York City ACT-SO program.
ACT-SO is an acronym for Afro-Academic Technological and Scientific Olympics.
The goal of NYC ACT-SO is to inspire and encourage high academic and cultural
achievement and to foster confidence and skills that high school students will
need to thrive as adults. With 150 chapters nationwide, NAACP ACT-SO is the
largest program dedicated to academic achievement of Black youth in the
country.
Olympics of The Mind Set for April 23 - VIP Reception &
Awards Ceremony is April 25:
Operating under the administrative aegis of the
NAACP - the nation's oldest, largest, and most effective civil rights
organization - NYC ACT-SO will host its 18th annual Olympics of the Mind
competition on Saturday, April 23, 2005, 9 a.m. to 4 p.m., at Manhattan's Martin
Luther King High School, 122 Amsterdam Avenue, between 65th and 66th streets.
The VIP Reception (invitation only, 5 p.m. to 6:45 p.m.) & Awards Ceremony
(open to the public with ticket purchase, 7 p.m. to 9 p.m.) will follow on
Monday, April 25, at con Edison, 4 Irving Place in Lower Manhattan.
Medals, Cash Prizes:
NYC ACT-SO Olympics of the Mind top three
winners in each category receive a gold medal with $500 in cash, a silver medal
with $300, and a bronze medal with $200. The gold medallists (among 1,200 gold
medallists from local competitions across the country) advance to the national
NAACP ACT-SO Olympics of the Mind to be held July 7-11 in Milwaukee, where the
top three winners in each category receive a gold medal with $2000, a silver
medal with $1,500, and a bronze medal with $1,000. Every national medallist also
receives a fully-loaded laptop computer! There still is time for students to
apply to compete!
Enrichment Workshops, Activities Prepare
Students:
Participants' road to success and the Olympics of the Mind
competition begins at the start of the school year with intensive enrichment
workshops beginning in November. A kick-off rally is held in January, and the
enrichment workshops, conducted on Saturdays at Manhattan's P.S. 84, 32 W. 92nd
Street, between Columbus Avenue and Central Park West, continue through April.
The workshops are led by coaches, who are accomplished professionals in the
competition categories. They help students to choose and develop individual
projects. Since its inception, NYC ACT-SO has mentored more than 4,500 students
through coaching sessions, the Olympics of the Mind, and other enrichment
activities, which include field trips to Broadway plays, museums, and cultural
centers; college admissions workshops; studies broad; and
internships.
NYC ACT-SO - Driven and Led by Volunteers:
All coaches,
mentors, and judges donate their time to work with the students. The program's
success depends on the ability to recruit and retain dedicated volunteers from
communities throughout New York City. It takes hundreds of hours to involve
students, coach them through the competition, judge their entries and celebrate
their successes. Today, NYC ACT-SO has 400 judges, 40 coaches, and 75 other
volunteers. The organization is seeking more judges for this season's Olympics
of the Mind.
The Need, Impact, and Successes:
NYC ACT-SO's mission is
to overcome the vicious cycle of low scholastic expectations and achievement
that plagues minority communities throughout the city. More than 98 percent of
NYC-ACT-SO students graduate from high school and 85 percent go on to college.
The program offers a singular experience and level of recognition that greatly
impacts students' lives long after high school, including the lives of these NYC
ACT-SO alumni:
Mike Phillips, a world-renowned saxophonist who has toured
with Stevie Wonder, given a command performance for Nelson Mandela in
Johannesburg, South Africa, and toured with Prince's 2004 Musicology Tour. Mr.
Phillips is signed to Hidden Beach Recordings and will release his sophomore
album in May 2005. He also is the first non-athlete to secure an endorsement
contract with Nike.
Kimberly Acham, an accomplished artist who earned her
fine arts degree at New York University, became a junior curator for the
Brooklyn Museum of Art, and is a purchasing agent for a major art
dealer.
Everton Prospere, M.D., who earned his medical degree from the
City College of New York and is a successful, practicing physician in
Brooklyn.
Carrying on the Legacy of National NAACP ACT-SO Creator Vernon
Jarrett:
The 2005 NAACP ACT-SO season is the first since last year's passing
of legendary journalist and civil rights activist Vernon Jarrett, who created
the national program in 1977. The NYC ACT-SO chapter was founded in 1987 by
Anton Tomlinson and Benjamin Duster IV, a direct descendant of justice crusader
and journalist Ida B. Wells. NYC ACT-SO will uphold and expand Mr. Jarrett's
legacy through its annual student enrichment and fundraising activities. NYC
ACT-SO is grateful to its foundation, government, and individual supporters
(listed on the press release), and the community at-large!
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Source : http://www.prweb.com/releases/2005/2/prweb212573.htm