Middle schoolers take on the world in Geography Bee

GOSHEN — Jesse Shih placed first in the school-wide competition of the National Geography Bee Competition at the C. J. Hooker Middle School. Second place went to Ryan Garton, and Olivia Klugman and Alexander Gross won third and fourth place, respectively.

In addition, four students tied for fifth place: Liam Farrell, Ian Miller, Hunter Mullane and Victoria Schmidt; and two students tied for sixth place: Olivia Gargiulo and Freddi Semel.

The school-level Bee, where students answered oral questions on geography, was the first round in the 24 annual National Geographic Society. Shih will be administered a qualifying test to determine whether he will compete at the state-level competition. All school winners are eligible to win the national championship and its first prize, a $25,000 college scholarship, at the national competition in May, held in Washington, D. C.

The National Geographic Bee, an educational program of the National Geographic Society, is a nationwide geography competition for students in grades 4-8, designed to encourage the teaching and study of geography.

The top ten students to compete in the final competition were Liam Farrell, Olivia Gargiulo, Ryan Garton, Alexander Gross, Olivia Klugman, Ian Miller, Hunter Mullane, Victoria Schmidt, Freddi Semel, Jesse Shih. Other participants were Daniel Allspach, Connie Bouchard, John Creeden, Lydia DeFusto, Shannon Doherty, Cooper Drummond, Allison Forst, Thomas Glade, Kendra Godson, Michael Grald, James Lindeman, Patrick McGill, Jeremy Pantoni, Elizabeth Pehush, Jacob Rysinger, Rachel Shih, Nick Siragusa, and John Swift.