Staten Island Celebrates Success of Third Annual Civics Bee Competition
Simay Gultekin, Staten Island Chamber of Commerce
The Staten Island Chamber of Commerce proudly hosted its third annual National Civics Bee event on Monday, April 13th, bringing together middle school students from across New York City for an exciting and educational civics-oriented competition. This year’s competition, supported by the Office of the Borough President and State Senator Jessica Scarcella-Spanton, brought in nearly 300 essay submissions from middle schoolers across the city, with the top twenty advancing to the live competition on April 13th.
This year’s winner of the Staten Island National Civics Bee was Christopher Mosses, a Grade 7 student at the Academy of St. Dorothy. In addition to being crowned this year’s champion, Christopher also received a cash prize of $500 and a lapel gifted by Councilman Frank Morano. The second place winner was Theodore Penfold, a Grade 7 student who is homeschooled, who earned a cash prize of $250, and our third place student was Inaya Adeel, a Grade 8 student at I.S. 72 Rocco Laurie who earned a cash prize of $125. As a result of their achievements, the three finalists will advance to the New York State competition held in Albany on June 18th.
As a prerequisite to enter the competition, students in grades 6, 7, or 8 residing in Staten Island and its surrounding areas were asked to submit an essay identifying a challenge their community faces and posing a civically-charged solution to that challenge. This year’s topics included topics like public safety, social justice, education, transportation, mental health, community welfare, and the environment.
The top 20 students selected then moved onto the in-person competition, which consisted of two rounds of 10 civics-based multiple-choice questions, and a third live Q&A round where students were asked to give a summary of their essay topic and challenged with questions from the judges.
This year’s live competition was hosted by Staten Island Academy, and Anthony Reinhart, Project Director at the NYC Board of Elections, returned to emcee the event for the second year in a row. Our esteemed judges included Dr. Joanne Gerenser, Executive Director for Eden II Programs; Amanda Straniere, Manager of Staten Island Regional & Community Affair for Con Edison; and Christopher Lee, Director of Government and Community Relations for The Port Authority of NY/NJ.
Thank you to this year’s participants and their families, and thank you to the Office of the Borough President and State Senator Jessica Scarcella-Spanton for their ongoing support of this pivotal program.
