Students from Fort Wayne, Portage and Warsaw have finished in the top of the Kosciusko Chamber of Commerce's first-ever civics bee.
Arthur Satter, Fiona Steuer and Medha Aluru placed in first, second and third respectively in the bee held Tuesday at the Warsaw Community High School Performing Arts Center.
The Kosciusko Chamber of Commerce was one of six chambers across Indiana given grant money by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce Foundation to host a local bee.
Students in sixth, seventh and eighth grades from across northern Indiana submitted 500-word civics essays to qualify for Kosciusko Chamber's competition.
Eight students moved on to the bee and had to answer two timed rounds of multiple-choice civics questions such as "What do you call the candidate who holds an office at the time of election?" and "Where would you find the following text in the U.S. Constitution: 'No bill of attainder or ex post facto law should be passed'?" before the last round.
The five students who got the most questions right had to quickly summarize the main points from civics-themed essays they had written before a panel of five judges in the last round, who then posed several questions to the students on their writing.
Judges were Grace College history professor Dr. Mark Norris, Tiffany Fields with Zimmer Biomet, Marlene Betances with EnPak LLC, Chad Hummel with Silveus Insurance Group and Doug Hanes with 1st Source Bank.
Satter received $500 for winning the competition. He's a sixth-grader from Memorial Park Middle School in Fort Wayne and the son of Laurie and Lucas Satter. His essay topic regarded class presidents serving as representatives to the city council.
Steuer received $250 for second. The Willow Creek Middle School eighth-grader is the daughter of Davin and Anna Steuer. Her essay was on advocating for equal pay for men and women.
Aluru got $125 for third. She's the daughter of Mahender and Anitha Aluru and an Edgewood Middle School eighth-grader. Her essay was on preventing kids from vaping.
Satter, Steuer and Aluru next will compete at the state bee in August for a chance to go to the national bee in Washington, D.C.
Kosciusko Chamber of Commerce President and CEO Rob Parker said he hoped to host another bee next year.
"I think raising the awareness of civics in our society is very important, and hopefully we'll bring in new leaders to help sustain and to grow society," he said. "This is the first step for the chamber to really promote that, and we really want to do it again next year."