CHANDLER, Ariz. - From the desert to Washington, D.C., an Arizona teen is taking his love of civics out of the classroom and all the way to the capital for a national competition.
Meet Arizona's Rep :
Hamilton High School freshman Shaurya Arora has always loved learning about government.
"I was already interested in my history and civics classes in middle school," Arora said.
He is taking that love of learning to compete in not a spelling bee, but a civics bee, organized by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce Foundation.
What It Teaches Students:
Hilary Crow, vice president of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce Foundation, explained the goal is for participants "to understand how our democracy is designed to work, what the constitution says but also their roles and responsibilities as citizens and how they can help engage at the local level and create positive change and solutions in their communities."
Off to D.C.:
And it turns out Arora is pretty good at it. Winning the state competition, he is now heading to Washington, D.C., on Monday for the National Civics Bee Championship.
"It's going to be a good competition, but at the same time, it's mostly exciting because it's a new experience," Arora said.
Big picture view:
Students from all 50 states will compete in the nationally televised championship with the chance to win $100,000 toward their education savings plan. In addition to testing their civics knowledge, competitors are tasked with finding an issue and solution for their own community.
"Even though they maybe don't understand what civics means when they enter the competition, but they walk away at the end really transformed into more confident, capable young people with agency to contribute ideas and opportunities for the next generation," Crow said.
Arora's Focus:
Arora is focusing on the affordable housing crisis.
"I've seen its effects on people in my neighborhood and in my community and I wanted to explore the possible solutions to this," Arora said.
What's next:
The competition is on Oct. 14, and win or lose, for Arora, being amongst the brightest young minds in the nation's capital is a victory of its own.
"I'm going to meet a lot of other competitive people who share the same passion for civics bee as me," Arora said. "This competition is only going to happen once and there's a lot to learn from it."
The Source: Information in this report was gathered from Shaurya Arora, a Hamilton High School freshman and National Civics Bee competitor; Hilary Crow, vice president of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce Foundation; and FOX 10 reporter Annalisa Pardo.