Essex Academic Olympians Recognized by Freeholders

The Essex County Board of Chosen Freeholders recently honored The New Jersey Afro Academic, Cultural, Technological and Scientific Olympics (ACT-SO) 2013 New Jersey State Gold Medalists.  The board’s commendations were sponsored and presented to the gold medalists by At-Large Freeholder Gerald W. Owens, At-Large Freeholder President Blonnie R. Watson, At-Large Freeholder Rufus I. Johnson and District I Freeholder Rolando Bobadilla.

ACT-SO is an enrichment program consisting of 26 categories under the headings of science, humanities, visual and performing arts.  The program promotes a climate of academic and artistic development and more than 5,000 area high school students have participated in the ACT-SO workshops around the state.  An approved partner of the New Jersey Governor’s Arts in Education Awards Program, selected students in the program were honored in June at an awards presentation in the area of dance, creative writing, music, visual arts and theater.  This year’s Gold Medalists had the opportunity to compete for scholarship dollars at the national competition held July 11 – 14, in Orlando, Fla., in conjunction with the annual NAACP Convention.  As a result of this year’s team effort, two New Jersey students placed in the national competition; Madrid K. Smith, won a second place award for Oratory and Al-Nisa Murray, a student at Science Park High School, won a third place award in Medicine and Health.