Congratulations to the following students who comprised 17 out of 20 finalists for the regional Civics Bee: Breydan Hossack, Kat Feenan, Nathaniel Gushurst, Phoebe Huffman, Winston Cai, Carter Hawkins, Mary Glavin, Nicholas Jones, Oliver Wu, Tobias Torres, Alyssa Lin, Colin Kearns, Brendon Yu, Marissa Lesperance, Saya Patel, Alicia Chou, and Aubrey Pragoff! These students submitted essays based on the following prompt: Identify a problem, challenge, or opportunity in your local community. What can you do to contribute to its improvement based on founding principles and civic virtues?

The Chester County Chamber of Business and Industry and its partners hosted the regional Civics Bee on April 15, as part of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce Foundation's National Civics Bee competition. The event included a live quiz event to test the students' civics knowledge. The top five students had to present a summary of their essays and answer questions from the panelists. The top three winners will compete at the state level.

Patton students Breydan Hossack, Phoebe Huffman, Mary Glavin, Winston Cai, and Nathaniel Gusthurst were the top five finalists. Nathaniel Gusthurst won first place and $1000 prize, Winston Cai placed second and won $500, and Mary Glavin placed third and was awarded $250.00. The three of them will go on to compete in the State Competition on June 15. Way to go Patton Middle School students!