On July 31, 12-year-old Aisha Chavda, a sixth-grader at Timber Ridge Middle School, traveled with her family to Springfield, where more than a dozen middle schoolers from across Illinois gathered at the University of Illinois for the state round of the National Civics Bee.
The format started the same way it had in Orland Park: a quiz of 20 questions pulled from a civics study guide. The top five scorers advanced. Aisha made the cut.
From there, the competition grew tougher. Instead of the short pitch she gave at the local level, she now had three minutes to speak from a podium on stage. Her topic was cyberbullying.
“I chose it because cyberbullying is a really bad problem in my community,” she said. “I wanted to change the way people thought about it and reacted to it.”
At first, the longer speech felt overwhelming. “It was at first,” she said. “But once I got into the flow of things, it came out really easily.”
Aisha said preparation made the difference. She had studied with the official guide, writing out summaries of every topic. “You can’t just skim it, you have to look really in depth,” she said.
One area she focused on was the responsibilities of citizens and how the Constitution explains them. “It shows why you need to do things like that.”
One of the judges, Dan Wagner, encouraged her afterward. “He asked me if I was planning on running for any government positions,” Aisha said. “That really inspired me.”
When her name was announced as the state champion, she was shocked. “I wasn’t expecting it, I couldn’t stop smiling– It felt like a dream.”
Her mother, Lubna Chavda, said the win came after weeks of commitment, “She worked very hard during the whole summer and didn’t go anywhere.” Lubna added, “She even missed four or five parties, she would say, ‘I don’t want to go, I need to study.’”
Lubna added that she saw her daughter’s knowledge grow. “Before, we also didn’t have that much knowledge, but after the Civics Bee, she gained her knowledge.”
Her father, Irfan, and her sisters, Alisha and Areena, were part of her support system. “Her older sisters always motivate her, they tell her, you have to do this, you got this,” Lubna said.
Now, Aisha is preparing for the next step: representing Illinois at the National Civics Bee in Washington, D.C., on November 10 and 11.
The competition there will add a buzzer round after the speeches.
“I think I’m most excited about speaking in front of a lot of people in Washington,” she said. Her mom confirmed the whole family will be there with her.
Asked what advice she would give other kids, Aisha didn’t hesitate. “Be motivated and don’t ever lose hope and prepare from day one.”
For her, civics is about more than competition. “It’s important so students can learn more about the way things were, and flaws that shouldn’t be repeated again,” she said.
If she had the chance to sit down with any leader in U.S. history, Aisha knows who she would pick. “Abraham Lincoln, and I would ask, how much pressure did you feel during the Civil War and when you were signing the Emancipation Proclamation?”
The dedication and courage are truly inspiring