Alina Ahnad and Moyinoluwa “Precious” Omotoye, both 13-year-old eighth-graders at Harmony Science Academy recently took the plunge to take part in the Odessa Chamber of Commerce’s first Civics Bee.
Ahnad will move on to state in Austin this summer and Omotoye placed fourth, winning a $50 Cinergy gift card. But both had memorable experiences.
The event was open to any 6th, 7th or 8th grade student in Odessa. They were invited to submit an essay on “identify a problem facing our community.” The essays were judged by U.S. Chamber representatives and 10 students were selected from Harmony Science Academy, Adinvita Private School and St. John’s Episcopal School to participate in the live Civics Bee here in Odessa.
Three Odessans served as local judges for the live event: Ector County Judge Dustin Fawcett, Young Professionals of Odessa Board Chair Kaylie Banda and Dr. Adrian Vega, Executive Director of the Education Partnership of the Permian Basin. Odessa American Publisher Pat Canty served as the event emcee.
Ahnad said she wanted to address a problem in the community that really needed to be talked about, but few want to discuss and that is Islamaphobia. Her essay was 599 words. It took her a week to write it taking an hour or so each day.
“Also, I had to gather my sources and figure out what primary sources I could use to support my claim in the problem, that it really is a problem,” Ahnad said.
“When they were building the new masjid in Midland, I heard that they started a protest or a riot to stop the building, or delay the building. I’ve never really experienced it myself, but I know other people in my community, like friends, have experienced it,” she added.
Ahnad said she talked to people like her dad who told her about hate crimes and assaults happening worldwide and discrimination.
To prepare for it, Ahnad said she is trying to study and get dates down as much as possible like the Constitution, Declaration of Independence and the Declaration of Sentiments. She’s also studying how the government was formed and what it’s like today.
Ahnad said she would take part in the Bee again.
“I enjoyed the experience of being there answering questions,” she added.
Omotoye’s essay centered on poverty and what can be done to improve conditions.
“My points were we could fundraise. We can spread awareness about it and we can volunteer in places that help out with like shelters and stuff,” Omotoye said.
She added that she decided to participate in the Bee because it was a new thing.
“I’ve never seen anything like that in Odessa and I wanted to just try it out, see what it’s about, get experience because we’re going to have to do some stuff like that in high school,” Omotoye said.
They would both recommend the experience to other students.
Omotoye said the Bee experience helped her think more clearly.
“Like poverty, we already know about it, but I didn’t know how bad it was and doing the research … helped me because I gathered more information, so now I can do more things,” she added.
Omotoye said it was kind of hard to answer questions on the spot.
“But it does help because the more you do that, the more active your brain is going to be and like that will help you in the future, so I think it’s good that I’m doing it right now,” she added.
Ahnad said it was a little too early in the morning for her brain to function at full speed and she didn’t like that it was timed.
“But for me the questions, they were … in the middle. They weren’t too hard, but they weren’t too easy. A lot of this stuff I had studied prior to it,” she added.
Omotoye said she enjoyed meeting students from the other schools because they were really nice and fun to talk to.
“Meeting new people, as the other kids from those different schools, I enjoyed meeting them because they were really nice.”
Ahnad said the Bee helped her practice thinking on the spot and speaking in front of people.
“Public speaking is not something I usually do on a daily basis,” she said. “That is just something that I know (I want to) work on. Having that experience of speaking to people I don’t know in that I’m not the most comfortable with, it helped me improve,” Ahnad said.
They both said public speaking is something that will be helpful in the future. They also plan to take college classes in high school.
Ahnad hopes to go into law and possibly become a judge in the future while Omotoye is going for something IT. She added that Daniel Price and Toni Pina worked with them.
Harmony Public Relations Coordinator Christina Bernal said they are super proud of all the hard work the girls put in.
“They took a lot of time after school to get prepared,” Bernal said.
Odessa Chamber of Commerce National Civics Bee winners announced
