Every year, North Augusta High School competes in the South Carolina Senior Beta Club Convention. The official Beta Club website describes the convention as a way to “give members the opportunity to interact, share project ideas and showcase their academic and leadership abilities.” High school students from all over the state get to compete in activities, such as academic skills tests, creative writing contests, art contests, and quiz bowls. Additionally, the winners of the state-level conventions get to compete in the National Convention that is hosted later in the year. This year, National Convention will be hosted at Walt Disney World Swan and Dolphin Result in late June.
Last year, the South Carolina convention took place in Myrtle Beach on February 7th and 8th. Many of our students, including seniors Savannah Padgett and Chloe Martin, attended the convention. “Last year, I competed in Speech individually and Marketing and Communications as a team,” said Padgett. “For speech, I got third place overall and for Marketing and Communications, we got first.” Martin competed in an event called Living Literature with seniors Rachel Walden and Molly Lindsey, and graduate Ella James. “I competed in Living Literature, where my partners and I had to create an entire standing set from a book, costumes and all,” Martin explained. “We had to stand still for two-minute increments while the judges looked at us. At the end, we got feedback and they told us what they liked.”
The students that are competing also get to watch other students and schools perform. Martin said, “We got to see the other performing arts people compete and that was probably my favorite part. We got to see singers and dancers, and it was super fun.” Padgett also said that watching the other schools perform was her favorite part. “The experience is so much fun getting to see students from all over South Carolina get together to show off their schools,” she said.
North Augusta High School students have been very successful at the South Carolina convention in past years. Just last year, Chloe Bernier placed second in the Color Photography division, Ashley Schumacher won first in Creative Writing, a North Augusta High School team placed first in Marketing and Communications, and Savannah Padgett got third place in Speech.
Because of COVID-19, this year’s South Carolina Beta Club Convention has been altered. Savannah Padgett is also competing in convention this year, so she was able to describe some of the adjustments. “This year, due to COVID-19 regulations, all of the events were online. I competed in a mathematics competition and I recorded a video for the speech competition,” she said. Instead of participating in person, students took tests and submitted their videos or works virtually. The testing and submission window was from January 15th to January 25th. Additionally, the convention offered less events this year. Some events, such as Living Literature, Performing Arts, and Robotics, will only be offered at National Convention. However, the events that weren’t available on the state-level will be open to all clubs on the national level.
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