Abuzz about geography

Stevenson Ranch sixth-grade student competes in national competition for scholarship awards

Students across California competed for their chance to compete in the National Geographic Bee, a competition that awards more than $85,000 in college scholarships and an all-expenses-paid Lindblad expedition to the Galápagos Islands aboard the National Geographic Endeavour ll.

Stevenson Ranch Elementary sixthgrader Sawyer Wiltfong was commended for his outstanding performance in the California State Bee, a qualifier for the National Bee in which hundreds of students ranging from the fourth through eighthgrade competed for a chance at a $10,000 scholarship prize.

Wiltfong won a school-wide competition at the Stevenson Ranch school which made him eligible to attend the state-wide competition this past April at Fresno State, but school champions were first required to take an online test and only the top 100 scorers would move on to state.

Wiltfong, who qualified last year as a fifth-grader, was only one of the few sixthgraders to qualify for the state competition.

He managed to maintain a perfect score in the preliminary round until the very last question which, if answered correctly, would have put him in the top 30 of all participants and advanced him on to a tiebreaker round that could’ve put him in the finals.

Venkat Ranjan, an eighth-grader from San Ramon, California, was the winner of the California State championship and national championship, which was recently held in Washington D.C.

According to Wiltfong’s preliminary round score, he tied for 30th in this year’s competition.

“Needless to say, we’re very proud of him and he’s already looking forward to trying to get back there next year,” Stevenson Ranch PTO officials said.