CHARLOTTESVILLE, VA (CVILLE RIGHT NOW) – This past July, as students enjoyed their last few weeks of summer break, three Henley Middle School students headed to Williamsburg for the 2026 National Civics Bee Virginia State Finals on July 24.

There, Tucker Richmond, an outgoing eighth grader, placed second after winning the regional competition. He was joined by Adlee Bullard and Nayla Handa, who finished second and third in regionals respectively.

Richmond already knew a good amount about civics before getting involved in the Civics Bee thanks to his father, a government teacher at Western Albemarle High School where Tucker has just started his freshman year.

“It’s interesting to learn about how the government works and how, through our history, how it’s changed,” Richmond told Cville Right Now.

His teacher, Pam Koury, helped pique his interest last year and introduced him to the competition.

“Last year in eighth grade, I’d say I was pretty interested in history and like civics and the law, especially because my teacher, Ms. Koury, was very good,” Richmond said. “So, she got me interested, and she was talking about the Civics Bee. So, I decided that would be a good thing to try out and see what it’s like.”

Richmond competed in both the bee as well as another competition called “We the People,” another civics competition for both middle and high school students that Koury also helps Henley students prepare for.

“He’s very driven,” Koury told Cville Right Now of Tucker, “and I think that comes across in the Civics Bee.”

Throughout his preparation, Richmond learned more about, among other things, the articles in the Constitution, why the Bill of Rights was created, and how and why the Constitution was amended. He said he was particularly surprised to learn that the constitution has only had 27 amendments, despite how much the country has changed over the course of its history.

Koury described the competition as “very student-driven,” with her role coming as more a facilitator. Still, Henley had a track record of success in the competition, producing the last two first place winners of the state competition, the most recent being Handa’s brother, Neil.

The competition itself consisted of two live quiz events and then a summary of the competitors’ essays. Richmond was the only Henley student to make it out of the quiz portion, leading all competitors by answering 19 of the 20 total multiple-choice questions correctly.

His performance put him in the final round, in which the top five competitors gave a brief pitch about their essay. Richmond’s topic of choice for his essay was the issue of homelessness in Charlottesville.

“I wrote it because, a lot of the time in Charlottesville, I see homeless people on the street and just kind of thinking about what we could do to make that way less common,” he said.

His ideas included generating more donations for local shelters, especially from those more well-off. He also looked into the micro-communities, including villages of mini houses, established in Denver to serve its unhoused community.

“That could be something we could do with the money raised, to do mini houses to give homeless people a place to start and just a bed to sleep in,” he said.

Koury praised Richmond for selecting the topic of homelessness and felt like his topic was one that needs to be discussed more compared to the ones’ selected by his competitors, including the eventual winner who spoke on train museums.

“He was a very good public speaker, the student who won, but I don’t think the issue is fundamentally one that we really need to be talking about as much,” Koury said. “… I think Tucker had that, and so that’s what I was, I’m proud of him for tackling something deep.”

As he begins his time in high school, Richmond is planning to continue to pursue his interest in civics by joining the “We the People” team at WAHS. Koury said many of the students she worked with on the Civics Bee plan to do “We the People” at WAHS, and she’s looking forward to seeing where their high school careers take them.