World view leads to top honors
Students from an innovative STEM-driven high school in Rio Rancho took top honors in a three-hour plus competition that tests knowledge of world politics, foreign affairs and history.
This, despite the fact that they only began studying for the 100-question Academic World Quest contest about 24 hours before it began on Thursday morning.
“I hate to say that they did put it together last minute, but most of the topics they have studied in the Model U.N. program all year,” said Krista Pink, the teacher overseeing the first-place team from the Ask Academy in Rio Rancho.
The students — Noelle Hoenig, Jonah Molina, Katherine Rader and Makeila Mcguire — will go on to compete in the national World Quest contest in Washington, D.C., in late April.
Two different teams from Santa Fe High School took second and third place in the event, which drew 11 teams in all. One of the Santa Fe High teams held the lead throughout most of the competition, but the Ask Academy team ultimately won by one point — with the respective parties waiting breathlessly for the results, which were announced only after a panel of judges counted and recounted the final tallies several times.
“We only started to think that we were going to win when they started taking a lot of photos of us, because we thought, ‘That’s funny, they hadn’t taken any photos of us before,’ ” said Rader.
The Santa Fe Council on International Relations hosted the competition, held at Santa Fe Community College. Academic World Quest is a program of the World Affairs Councils of America. Some 4,000 students took part in 50 competitions nationwide last week.
The goal of the competition is not to simply echo history or civics lessons being taught in the classroom, said Sandy Campbell, executive director of the Santa Fe Council on International Relations. Rather, the quest helps students understand the world around them and their place in it.
“It’s a great opportunity for students to think about the world in a different way,” he said. The winning team, he said, “gets to go and experience Washington, D.C. — and right now that is a fascinating place to be.”
Toward that end, the four-member teams tackled a total of 100 questions covering 10 topics, ranging from the goal of the NAFTA treaty to the rise of India as a global power to climate change issues to current events. Some of the questions seemed to be taken from current news headlines. For example, which car manufacturer recently announced it will produce only electric cars by 2019? The answer: Volvo.
Other questions appeared mindnumbingly obtuse and obscure. For example, did you ever wonder which of four historic documents regarding the law of the sea was referenced in a Declaration of the Conduct of Parties in the South China Sea? Answer: the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea.
The students had 45 seconds as a team to answer each multiplechoice question with good, oldfashioned paper and pencil. There was a lot of nail biting, chin scratching, foot tapping, smiling faces and shrugs as the students contemplated the answers.
One boy, his pallor suggesting a night spent studying without any sleep, took a cat nap in between rounds.
Several students from different teams who took part in the competition said it encouraged them to learn more about the politics, cultures and people of countries outside of the United States. Mcguire, for example, said she focused on studying Saudi Arabia in preparation for the contest.
“Before this competition I would not have gone on the internet and said, ‘Let’s learn about Saudi Arabia today,’ ” she said. “It’s really important for us to learn about world affairs and what is going on around us.”
This is the third year that the Santa Fe Council on International Relations has hosted the competition in Santa Fe. The first year, just two teams took part. Last year, six did. Campbell said he hopes it keeps growing and encourages other districts in the state to compete.