Two local teens national finalists
Students among 20 at Canadian Geographic Challenge in Ottawa
A pair of city high school students are heading to Ottawa on Saturday to compete in the Canadian Geographic Challenge.
Jake Douglas and Dhruv Pathak are among the Top 20 finalists in the contest. They beat out roughly 25,000 students from across Canada to earn their spots.
It’s Douglas’s third consecutive year competing and Pathak’s first.
Douglas is in Grade 10 at St. Peter Secondary School and Pathak is in Grade 10 at Kenner Collegiate Vocational Institute.
Organized by the Royal Canadian Geographical Society, the Canadian Geographic Challenge tests students’ knowledge of Canadian and world geography.
The 20 finalists will complete both a written and field test Sunday afternoon, with the top five moving onto the finals Monday.
The game-show style finals are broadcast live and take place at the Canadian War Museum.
Making it to the top five earns contestants a spot on a 10-day cruise on One Ocean Expedition Fins and Fiddles Adventure Cruise and the final three get cash prizes of $5,000, $3,000 and $2,000.
In 2016, Douglas made the Top 20 but didn’t advance any further.
Last year, he took home second place, banking the cash for a rainy day.
He also toured the East Coast on the cruise.
Meanwhile, Pathak tested for the challenge in the past, but didn’t rank.
Students are tested at the school level and then provincially to make the cut.
The winner from each province gets a spot, plus there are seven wild card spots.
Douglas, 15, and Pathak, 15, both have a passion for geography, which is what pushed them to try out.
“It’s cool to just be able to use this knowledge that we have on a big scale and meet other people that have the same interests as us,” Douglas said.
Pathak said he sees the contest as a chance to better educate himself.
“I feel like the knowledge I’ll acquire from this challenge will help me in understanding the world better,” Pathak said.
With the challenge open to students in Grades 4 through 10, it’s the last year either of the teenscan take part.
So winning first place would be a great way to go out, they said.
“I think it would be my biggest accomplishment yet. To come out and win the whole thing, in my first year, that would be impressive,” Pathak said.
“It would really, really mean a whole lot to me. Second place is great, but I’m hungry for more,” Douglas said.