Local students compete at national competition

July 31--NORMAL -- Four Twin City high school students recently competed at the 36th Annual NAACP ACT-SO National Competition, while the local ACT organization prepares for its upcoming season.

Ricardo Cortez de la Cruz II, a student at University High School, won a silver medal in poetry while Jordynn Palmer, of U High (Music Vocal Contemporary), Christian Baker, a Normal Community High School student (Short Story), and ItayJah Phillips, of Normal Community West (Dance) also competed in Las Vegas.

All four qualifed by winning gold medals at a local competition hosted by the NAACP Bloomington-Normal Branch in March at U High. It was co-sponsored by State Farm Insurance and Illinois State University.

ACT-SO stands for Academic, Cultural, Technological, and Scientific Olympics and it is the principle youth initiative of the NAACP.

An information booth for ACT-SO will be available Saturday at the 35th Cultural Festival at Bone Student Center at ISU. Orientation and registration for the 2014-2015 ACT-SO season is from 2:30 to 4 p.m.Sept. 6-7 at ISU's State Farm Farm Hall of Business, room 131, located on University Street.

The yearlong program is designed to recruit and and encourage high academic and cultural achievement among African-American high school students.

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