REAGAN KEMMERER, AN eighth grader at St. Junipero Serra Catholic School in Rancho Santa Margarita, continues to deepen her relationship with Christ and has made a commitment to learn as much as much as possible about the policies and laws that guide the U.S. government and its citizens.
Both passions shined brightly when Kemmerer, 14, won the regional competition of the National Civics Bee held March 12 at Nixon Presidential Library & Museum in Yorba Linda.
Kemmerer was first among 20 students and was one of four St. Junipero Serra students to participate in the competition.
“I didn’t know about the Civics Bee until my teacher and one of my principals at the school came and introduced it to our class,” said Kemmerer, who was awarded $500 for winning the competition. “And I was actually really intrigued by it. It was a way for me to participate in something that had to do with the United States.”
Kemmerer now advances to the first-ever California state finals of the National Civics Bee, which take place in June at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley. Top finishers in the state competition will advance to the National Civics Bee Championships in Washington, D.C. this fall, with the winner receiving $100,000 towards college.
“It’s going to be a lot more difficult,” Kemmerer said of the state and national competitions.
Students in the Civics Bee were asked to name their favorite historical figure. Many selected political figures such as Andrew Jackson and Thomas Jefferson or icons of the civil rights movement such as Martin Luther King Jr. and Ruby Bridges. Kemmerer selected Jesus Christ.
“I selected Jesus because He made the biggest impact in the world’s history,” she said. “He changed our world, saved us from our sins and unified so many people.”
Kemmerer, who has attended Catholic school her entire life, said her teachers and family helped prepare her for the Civics Bee.
For the first round of competition, students took a 10-question, multiple choice quiz onstage using iPads. The questions were projected on a screen so the audience could also test their knowledge of civics.
Here’s a couple:
Question: What does “secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity” mean?
Answer: The government should guarantee freedom for the current and future generations.
Question: What does the 14th Amendment state about U.S. citizenship?
Answer: It granted citizenship to all born or naturalized in the United States.
The top 10 students from the first round advanced to a second round, where each presented a three-sentence summary of their civics project and then answered questions from the judges.
Catholicism runs deep in Kemmerer’s family. They are parishioners at San Francisco Solano Catholic Church in Rancho Santa Margarita. Erica Kemmerer, Reagan’s mother, said her parents attended Catholic schools in New York before moving the family California. Erica Kemmerer took Catechism classes while attending public schools in California.
“Having faith and education at the same time is something I didn’t have, but I really wanted it for my kids,” Erica Kemmerer said.
Reagan’s older sister, Kennedy Kemmerer, graduated from Santa Margarita Catholic High School and is now a drama teacher at the high school. Reagan will attend Santa Margarita in the fall as a freshman.
The U.S. Chamber of Commerce Foundation launched the Civics Bee as a pilot program in 2022 in five cities, said Hilary Crow, vice president of Civics for the U.S. Chamber of Commerce Foundation in Washington, D.C. The end goal is to encourage young people to take a more active role in civic engagement, organizers said.
The Civics Bee at the Richard Nixon Presidential Library in Yorba Linda marked the first time the competition was held in California. The competition is now in 40 states and will likely take place in all 50 states in 2026, Crow said.
“We were so impressed and inspired by the students,” said Chris Lowe, director of education for the Richard Nixon Foundation. “It’s all about the students, and they did an amazing job.”