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Toledo’s NAACP
ACT-SO Gold Medalists Shine in Detroit
By Cynthia Savage
Special to The Truth
For more than 40 years,
the National Association for the Advancement of Colored
People (NAACP) has showcased the best and brightest
African-American high school students across the nation with
the
Afro-Academic, Cultural, Technological and Scientific
Olympics,
known as ACT-SO.
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ACT-SO Toledo Chair Bea Daniels
with Students |
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ACT-SO is an achievement program that promotes academic and
artistic excellence with competitions in 32 categories that
include STEM, humanities, business, performing, visual, and
culinary arts.
This past weekend, local students represented the Toledo
Branch of the NAACP at this year’s National Competition in
Detroit, Michigan. Arthur Bishop, Addie Cundiff, Jordan
Collins, Alanna Hicks, Whitney Taylor Hughes, Nickolas
Stewart, and Shakayla Waters competed in Music Contemporary:
Instrumental; Dramatics; Photography; Drawing; Music Vocal:
Contemporary; Dance: Contemporary; and Poetry: Written.
Four of the seven students from the Toledo area were
selected to participate in the Closing Ceremony for the 41st
ACT-SO Competition: Nickolas and Shakayla for dance; Alanna
for singing and Arthur for the band.
Arthur Bishop, an incoming freshman at The University of
Toledo, participated in ACT-SO all four-years of his high
school career and was personally requested to play drums, as
he has each year, for his final ACT-SO closing ceremony.
Nickolas Stewart, also an incoming freshman at The
University of Toledo, was selected to travel to Los Angeles,
California in March 2019 for a performing arts intensive
workshop. Accompanied by ACT-SO chairperson, Beatrice
Daniels, the two also met and interacted with some of
Hollywood and music’s biggest stars as guests at the NAACP
Image Awards.
The local ACT-SO team could not be prouder of this year’s
participants, and as graduates, Whitney (NYU), Nicholas and
Arthur transition to college this fall, they will have the
privilege of being recognized as ACT-SO Ambassadors with a
list of celebrities that includes Anthony Anderson, Jada
Pinkett-Smith, Kanye West, and filmmaker, John Singleton.
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