Mid-Wilshire Youth Wins Gold in NAACP’s Mental Olympics

A Westside youth won a gold medal in chemistry at the Afro-Academic, Cultural, Technological and Scientific Olympics in New York, according to the National Assn. for the Advancement of Colored People.

The winner was Robert Jones, who was presented with $1,000 in addition to the medal. He lives in the Mid-Wilshire area and is a student at the King/Drew Medical Health Science Magnet, a high school in the Willowbrook area. His entry was sponsored by the Compton branch of the NAACP

Other finalists in last month’s contest included Shani Butler, a resident of the Crenshaw District and a student at St. Mary’s Academy in Inglewood. She won a silver medal and $750 for her entry in the film-video category.

She was sponsored by the Beverly Hills-Hollywood branch of the NAACP, as were Byron Scott, an Inglewood resident who came in second in the oratory competition, and Mark Christian of Los Angeles, who placed third in biology.

Christian, also a student at King/Drew, is one of seven national finalists in the NASA Space Science Student Involvement Program.

If chosen to be carried on a space flight, his project would help determine effects of a low-gravity environment on the production of antibiotics, according to a statement from the Los Angeles Unified School District.