Bolingbrook Grad Wins Gold Medal At STEM Competition

BOLINGBROOK, IL — Bolingbrook High School Class of 2017 graduate Cristal Johnson is adding quite a prestigious prize to her awards collection after earning the gold medal in Chemistry at the National ACT-SO Competition in Baltimore on July 20. Cristal will be attending Howard University this fall and will be majoring in Chemistry.

ACT-SO is the Afro-Academic, Cultural, Technological and Scientific Olympics and is a year-long
program that was created to encourage high academic and cultural achievement among high
school students of African descent. The primary focus of the program is the development of
projects for competition in categories in the areas of STEM, Business, Humanities, Performing Arts
and Visual Arts.

Cristal was part of the DuPage County ACT-SO Team that won the top medals awarded in the
categories of Chemistry, Computer Science, Earth and Space Sciences and Physics. DuPage
County ACT-SO students also earned the bronze medal in the Engineering category and the silver
medal in Music Composition, bringing DuPage County ACT-SO into a tie for the second highest
number of total national medals awarded, a total of six. The medalists will each receive cash prizes
ranging from $1,000-$2,000 and were given a Samsung Chromebook Plus at the awards
reception.

Via Valley View School District