EAST GREENWICH — While just two OLM School 7th graders competed in the first ever RI State Civics Bee on Tuesday, June 17 at the Swift Gymnasium in East Greenwich, they certainly made their presence known by taking First and Second place in the competition.
The 2025 National Civics Bee RI State Finals, which was hosted by the East Greenwich Chamber of Commerce and Executive Director Steve Lombardi, included 20 students in grades 6, 7 and 8 from middle schools around the state.
To qualify for Tuesday’s event, students throughout RI had been invited to submit essays that instructed them to identify a problem in his or her community and to create a way to solve it by using Civic Virtue and Founding Principles. 43 students submitted essays in February, with local judges reviewing submissions and selecting the 20 finalists to compete on Tuesday. The two OLM students who were chosen to compete, out of the 10 who submitted essays, were Caroline Colligan from East Greenwich and Aileen Block of Warwick.
At Tuesday’s Finals, there were two fast paced, intensive multiple-choice quiz rounds which whittled the field down to five. Both Colligan and Block advanced to the final round where all five finalists verbally summarized their essays and were then interviewed by a panel of judges. The students were asked real-life scenarios, like how their proposed solutions would be funded and how they would plan to gain access to town and state officials for approval. When the final points were tabulated, both OLM students came out on top, with Colligan capturing First Place and Aileen Block winning Second.
According to OLM Middle School History Teacher, P.J. O’Neill, “I could not be more proud of both our students winning the top two places in the State Civics bee, with one of our own representing the entire state in our Nation’s Capital this fall.” He added, “They faced some stiff competition from around the state and really held their own and represented OLM so well.”
Both girls received awards and cash prizes, and had the opportunity to meet with Governor Dan McKee. Caroline also earned a trip to our Nation’s Capital where she will represent the State of Rhode Island in Washington D.C. this fall when she competes in the National Championship Civics Bee.
Congratulations to Aileen and Caroline for their hard work and making OLM proud.
