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About Oregon daily emerald. (Eugene, Or.) 1920-2012 | View Entire Issue (Feb. 5, 2001)
Laura Smit Emerald Rarhel Bonin, competing in poetry, original essay and photography for the Afro-Acade mic, Cultural, Technological and Scientific Olympics, listens to her mentor, Bill Sweet. ACT-SO program educates youth ■ With 25 areas of interest, ACT-SO was designed to further the academic talents of black students By Lindsay Buchele Oregon Daily Emerald When University freshman Ray na Luvert speaks, she commands attention. When asked what an oratory competition requires, she respond ed quickly with subtle hand ges tures, solid eye contact and a de liberate, engaging tone of voice. “We have to develop our own speeches and base them around a topic that will be powerful enough to draw in the audience and the judges,” she said. “Engaging the judges and getting a response out of them is the most important part of the competition.’’Luvert devel oped her oratory skills while in high school by competing in the Afro-Academic, Cultural, Techno logical and Scientific Olympics, a program designed to draw out the academic talents of black high school students. ACT-SO held a progress meeting Saturday at Adams Elementary School. Luvert participated in the ACT SO program during all four years of her high school career. Her par ents, Henry and Abrella Luvert, were head of the Eugene branch of the program, which is sponsored and run by the NAACP. Her speech on the necessity of Black History Month took her all the way to the ACT-SO National Competi tion. “This program takes someone who has potential and builds that potential up,” Luvert said. “Black students have the opportunity to excel in a category they love.” The ACT-SO program includes 25 categories of competition in the sciences, humanities, performing and visual arts and business. Some of the activities include architec ture, drawing, painting, oration, original essay, entrepeneurship, musical composition and biology. The Eugene chapter has en rolled 35 Lane County students in the competitive program this year. The program organizers are all vol unteers. Students in the program aim to place high enough in the local competition to make it to the na tional one, which was originally held in Portland, Ore. This year’s competition will be held in New Orleans, La. The experience of the national competition, and the program as a whole, is nothing but supportive of each youth’s talent, Luvert said. “It’s a supportive environment, in the fact that in between big competitions, even people com peting against each other are con stantly encouraging one another,” Luvert said. One unique aspect of the pro gram is its attempt to engage com munity members as mentors to the students involved in the competi tion. Mentor Charles Dalton, former Eugene NAACP president, said be ing a mentor is all about giving en couragement to students. “It can’t hurt to be a mentor; it’s always helpful,” Dalton said. Jacoby Black, a high school sophomore at Marist High School, said he wouldn’t be able to com pete if it weren’t for his mentors. Black’s mother, Serita Black, and his aunt, Yvonne Stubbs, are his mentors in the oratory and draw ing categories. “I wish there had been someone to help me this way when I was younger,” Stubbs said. “Mentors in this program are helping to bring out the positive African-American youth in our society.” Most of the mentors are profes sionals and professors who excel in specific subjects. Bill Sweet, a literature and writing professor at Lane Community College, has been mentoring in the ACT-SO program for five years. Sweet, who is mentoring a student in the poet ry competition, said the mentors are there strictly for guidance. “The work is entirely the stu dents,”’ Sweet said. “Our job is to look over their shoulders and give them a push if they need it.” Luvert, who can no longer take part in the competition because she is now a University student, decided to continue in the pro gram by becoming a mentor. “It’s important to know that you don’t just take part in this program and then move on,” Luvert said. “It stays with you forever. My be coming a mentor shows how it all comes together.” Luvert will be mentoring Linnea Leverson, a sophomore at Sheldon High School, who got involved in the program after she offended some people at the National Asso ciation Advancement of Colored People Freedom Fund Dinner last November. “I was discussing white privi lege, and I could tell that some of the audience members took of fense to what I was saying,” Lever son said. She decided she would focus her speech for the oratory compe tition on how the media and soci ety put pressure on blacks to be “more white.” “I want to show people that so ciety has been messing up peoples’ perception of African-Americans,” Leverson said. “Even African Americans can’t see their own beauty.” OFF Any Yogurt (’Except small cones and tinies. Expires 2/18/01) Campus SUBSHOP Mon.-Fri. lOam-lOpm Sat. llam-9pm Sun. 12pm-9pm 1225 Alder 345-2434 Not valid with any other discounts or coupons. One coupon per customer. HOMEY HILL FARMS, Advertise lit the ©&£ Classifieds Q«5€r *lQ«tQi #. flAIDCUT SPECIAL Please Call Hal for an appointment The Answer Fop Haiq AT THE HILTON 687-9379 66 East 6th Avenue ODE Serving 10,000 Daily f PHOTO 1 [SPECIALS] ■ FEBRUARY 5-11 ■ PRINTS FROM B SLIDES: ■ 3x5 - 2for SI.00 4 x 6 - 2 lor SI.75 ■ 5 X 7 - SI.50 each I 8 x 10 ■ $4.00 each ■ From 35mm color slides, glossy ™ surface only. Allow 5-10 working _ days lo receive prints. 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