SIDNEY — Three local students are among 18 young people who have been named winners in the American Legion Department of Ohio Americanism and Government Test program.
Aly Baughman, daughter of Kristina and Robert Baughman, of Piqua, and a junior at Christian Academy Schools; Cale Brackman, son of Kathy and Alan Brackman, of New Bremen, and a senior at New Bremen High School; and Nobel Zhou, son of Lan Bai and Jianyou Zhou, of Sidney, and a sophomore at Sidney High School, will enjoy an all-expenses-paid trip to Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, and Washington, D.C.,
According to Chuck Craynon, of Sidney, the annual test is given to some 50,000 sophomores, juniors and seniors throughout Ohio. It comprises 50 questions and requires a 300-word essay on a topic of government or patriotism.
The students compete first at the American Legion post level. Post winners’ tests are then evaluated at the county level. County winners move on to the district level and district winners, to the state level.
“There are seven counties in each district and 14 districts in the state,” Crayon, a district chairman, said. At the state level, from 84 contestants, three young men and three young women in each class are named as program winners and awarded the five-day trip and a small cash stipend.
Baughman is the seventh winner from Christian Academy Schools. Brackman is New Bremen’s first state winner. Zhou is Sidney High School’s 31st winner. The school has had at least one winner each year since 2009 and claimed its first winner in 1970.
The program is a joint project of the American Legion and the American Legion Auxiliary.
According to the website of the American Legion Department of Ohio, “a feature of the Americanism and Government Test is that the students themselves do not advance in the competition, the student’s test paper does. The Americanism and Government Test is not designed to have one student compete against another. It is designed to test an individual student’s knowledge of the following: the United States flag, the Declaration of Independence, the United States Constitution, state government in Ohio, county government in Ohio, city government in Ohio, township government in Ohio, village government in Ohio and school district government in Ohio,” the website says.
“The 50 questions of the Americanism and Government Test are written in such a manner to be current and topical to events, studies and information being presented in Ohio high schools and events happening in the state of Ohio and the nation,” the website notes.
The program started in 1936. One of the highlights is that students, while in Washington, D.C., lay a wreath at the Tomb of the Unknowns in Arlington National Cemetery.
