St. Regis team competes at the Academic World Quest
<p>Left to right: Advisor, Ryan Antos, Madison Hill, Anna Sanford, Courtney Cheesman and Emma Hill made up the St. Regis team who competed at the Academic WorldQuest at the University of Montana on Feb. 23. Photo by Tina Hill.</p>
On Feb. 23, nearly 300 high school students from around the state competed at the 12th annual Academic WorldQuest competition organized by the Montana World Affairs Council.
Academic WorldQuest is a competition between teams of four high school students testing competitors’ knowledge of international affairs, geography, history, culture and more. One of the teams was from St. Regis and consisted of Madison Hill, Anna Sanford, Courtney Cheesman, and Emma Hill.
The teams prepare for months to compete and test their knowledge in ten categories, including NATO, Global Food Security, the Arctic and International Trade and Finance. The Council welcomed over 50 teams to Missoula, making it the 3rd largest Academic WorldQuest in the nation for the sixth year in a row.
Teams from places like Big Fork, Wolf Point, Columbia Falls, Great Falls, and Stanford competed in the event. Along with the competition, the one day event included a presentation from council founder, Ambassador Mark Johnson (ret.); a foreign film discussion on the Syrian refugee crisis with Dr. Udo Fluck, Director of Global Gateway at University of Montana, and a panel discussion with UM foreign students.
Ryan Antos, the team’s advisor, said that the first contest was an instant challenge where the students had no prior preparation. All the students were split into teams of three to six and all the schools were mixed up. The challenge was a fictional dispute between the U.S. and Russia over oil in the Arctic. The students were required to develop a diplomatic solution to the problem. St. Regis’ Courtney Cheesman, was on the second place team in the challenge and received a medal.
The second challenge was a ten section multiple choice test that had questions ranging from “Privacy in a digital age” to the “Sultanate of Oman” to “International Trade and Finance”. There were a total of 100 questions asked and each school team worked together to answer the questions. However, the St. Regis team did not place in that competition.
Bozeman High won the competition and will travel to Washington D.C. in April, where they will compete against schools from around the country.