GCMS students Harlee Murray and Rylee Greene at the State Convention accepting their 2nd place award. Submitted photo

On Friday, July 17, the National Jr Beta Club released the winners of their first-ever National Jr Beta Virtucon. Rylee Greene and Harlee Murray had plans to attend the conference in person but due to the school shutdown in March, they were unable to. Fortunately, they were able to represent North Carolina and Greene County at the Virtucon and became the National Champions in the Technology Competition.

Out of over 400 submissions, Greene and Murray’s submission was chosen as the best in the nation. This represents the very first time Greene County Middle School has ever attended the National Convention and has ever placed in the competition. 

Matthew Lococo, Jr Beta Sponsor, and 8th Grade teacher at GCMS, stated “Greene and Murray worked very hard to get to the National Convention and we were so proud of them being selected to represent North Carolina. We were blown away by the announcement today and could not be more proud of these young ladies and all their hard work!“

Jr Beta Club has been part of Greene County Middle School since 1986 and currently has over 100 members. Greene, who currently serves as the 20-21 Club President created a website with Murray’s assistance that outlines the key values of Beta and all that it has done a GCMS. 

“In the chaos of a pandemic, this was an awesome shot of positive news for our school,” Lococo said.