ACT-SO – the Academic, Cultural, Technological and Scientific Olympics, is a youth program under the administrative aegis of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP).  ACT-SO is a yearlong enrichment program designed to encourage high academic and cultural achievement among underserved minority high school students.

High School students prepare in up to three of 28 categories after school during the school year. The program culminates with the “Olympics of the Mind” competition and awards ceremony which give the students an opportunity to showcase their projects and to be recognized for their achievements.

In 1977 Vernon Jarrett of Chicago, a renowned author, civil rights activist and journalist, initiated the idea of a program that would promote and reward young academic achievers the same way sports heroes are honored. The first national ACT-SO competition was held in 1978 in Portland Oregon.

”We must never write off the potential for greatness among any of our beleaguered youth. Never!”
                                                                      Vernon Jarrett, ACT-SO founder (1918 – 2004)