Sophomore Elsie Boafo won the NAACP Afro-Academic, Cultural, Technological and Scientific Olympics as a national silver medalist, having the opportunity to fly out to Las Vegas over the summer to celebrate the finalists and winning a $1,500 scholarship.
The NAACP ACT-SO aims to inspire Black youth in grades nine to 12 by providing the opportunity to demonstrate academic, artistic, and scientific prowess. Students can compete in up to three of the 32 competitive fields offered.
Boafo submitted a short story titled “Five Stages of Grief.” The story follows the main character who is obsessed with someone who already has a romantic partner. As a result, she decides to murder him and the story continues to outline the decisions she makes as a means to cover up the truth.
When explaining why she particularly focused on the five stages of grief, Boafo said, “It’s really important that we notice how people’s emotions affect their actions and how deep people can feel things. I wanted to highlight how people can feel something and act on it.”
Prior to submitting her short story, Boafo was notified about the opportunity and aided by former Watkins Mill teachers Ashley Tokornoo and Ammini Vasudevan. “I remember reading her first story…titled ‘Poison Apple,’ and it just blew my mind. [I thought] ‘My goodness Elsie, how [did] you come up with such a brilliant story’,” said Vasudevan. “[When I first heard she became a medalist], I was so happy and so proud. I was excited, but not surprised. Ever since “Poison Apple,” I started looking forward to all of her submissions.”
Working on her short story for 3 months, Boafo struggled with procrastination and writer’s block. Boafo said, “[Writing] was hard. I didn’t want [my story] to be boring, I wanted it to be interesting and to help people.” She overcame these troubles by watching movies, specifically taking inspiration from “On the Count of Three,” directed by filmmaker Jerrod Carmichael.
Reacting to the announcement of her achievement, Boafo couldn’t believe she had become a medalist: “I was like, ‘No way, no way.’ It was the first year [competing], too.”
From having doubts about submitting the NAACP ACT-SO application to becoming a National Silver Medalist, Elsie Boafo advises anyone interested in applying to “just do it.”
