3 Valley Youths Win Top Spots in Citizen Bee Competition

Three San Fernando Valley high school students--two from North Hollywood and one from Crespi--won a regional competition Saturday in the San Fernando Valley/Ventura County Citizen Bee contest.

Chris Hager, a senior at Crespi Carmelite High School in Encino, won first place and $500, while North Hollywood High School juniors Andrei H. Cerny and Eric S. Hong, took second and third places, respectively, winning $300 and $200 in the competition.

A total of 23 students from 14 high schools in Ventura County and the San Fernando, Santa Clarita and Antelope valleys participated in Saturday’s event at GTE California headquarters in Thousand Oaks. Those students were picked from intra-school competitions.

The Citizen Bee contest, organized loosely like a spelling bee, involves a question-and-answer session on American government, history, geography, economics, culture and current affairs and also includes a written exam.

The contest, in its fifth year in California, is sponsored by the Los Angeles Times, GTE California and the Close Up Foundation, a Washington-based organization devoted to civic education. The foundation also publishes the Citizen Bee Guide to American Studies, a series of classroom materials on U.S. history, government, economics and geography.

The three will be pitted against regional winners from other parts of California in the state finals April 25 at The Times’ downtown headquarters. The state champions will receive a three-day expense-paid trip to the finals in Washington in June.