Three Unit 4 middle school students, Finley Tarr (Franklin Academy), David Wang (Franklin Academy), and Heidy Fernandez (Edison Middle School), represented Champaign County at the state level of competition at the National Civics Bee®. They won the local round back in April. David Wang earned third place in the state and a $250 cash prize!
In July, the students traveled to the University of Illinois-Springfield to compete in the Illinois State Finals, joining 12 other middle school students from across the state. The competition included two rounds of challenging multiple-choice questions, followed by a presentation round where the top five students from the first two rounds presented their civic project proposal, developed from an essay they submitted before the local round.
Their projects addressed a range of community and societal issues: David Wang’s project explored the benefits of leveraging AI tutoring as an educational tool with peer mentoring groups; Finley Tarr’s project proposed a Sleep Education Campaign to promote healthy sleep habits for students; and Heidy Fernandez’s project focused on addressing homelessness and eliminating hostile architecture that prevents unhoused individuals from accessing safe public spaces.
Photo Credit: Yun Huang (From left to right: Heidy Fernandez, David Wang, Finley Tarr)