San Clemente High Senior Reaches Citizen Bee Finals

A 17-year-old from San Clemente and a Ventura County teen-ager were the top winners Saturday in California’s first Citizen Bee competition, where 33 high school finalists tested their academic strengths in subjects such as American history, geography, economics, politics, culture and current events.

Margaret Kuo, a senior at San Clemente High School, finished second, and Stephanus Philip of Moorpark, a student at Chaminade College Preparatory, finished first in the head-on competition.

“I’m really proud,” said Kuo, a straight-A student who plans to attend UCLA and study law. “The questions were a lot tougher and the contestants were much better prepared than in the regional competitions. It was, in a word, intense.”

Kuo, Philip and third-place winner Ken Kuniyuki of Torrance now advance to the national competition June 17 in Washington, where they will face 73 other contestants from 28 states.

Kuo said she was elated at the idea of traveling to the nation’s capital for the finals. She is the first girl to reach the national finals in four years of Citizen Bee competition.

The contest was developed by the Close Up Foundation, a nonprofit group in Washington, “to combat an alarming lack of knowledge about the basics of American government and public life among . . . high school students.” It was sponsored by The Times and held in the newspaper’s auditorium in downtown Los Angeles.

Philip was declared the winner--on his 17th birthday--after he had correctly answered two questions in a row after a miss by Kuo.

The first five winners in Saturday’s competition, patterned after a spelling bee, received cash awards.

Pedro Cardenas, a senior from Garfield High School in Los Angeles, placed fifth and collected $250. David Lee, an 11th-grader from Diamond Bar High School, won $500 for fourth. Kuniyuki received $750 for third, and Philip and Kuo each received $1,000.

In addition, Philip, who said he wants to be a medical researcher, was presented with a $2,500 scholarship provided by Columbia Savings Charitable Foundation, which also underwrote $150 registration fees of each of the schools participating in the Citizen Bee. KCBS-TV in Los Angeles presented trophies to the top three finishers.

To reach the state finals, the students competed against more than 1,000 students from 150 Southern California schools in February and won their way through 11 regional competitions held in March.