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NMI Academic Bowl team hopes to win national title
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- Grace Christian Academy team members and coaches are excited in getting the chance to represent the CNMI in the National Academic Championship in Washington, D.C. (Jon Perez)
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- Grace Christian Academy team members proudly show off their T-shirts for the 2016 National Academic Championship that will be held in the nation’s capital. (Jon Perez)
Team CNMI is hoping to bring the National Academic Championship title home to Saipan. The five-member squad from Grace Christian Academy, however, admits they are in for a tough time against the best middle schools in the country.
“We are hoping to win,” said Lanz Jabez Victoria. “But we will try our best,” added team captain Hyunjin Noh. “We prepared hard for this just like every other competing teams, we know,” ended Elijah Joshua Pajarillaga. Arvin Dayao and Miku Kimura are the other members of the squad.
This is the first time that the CNMI got invited to the annual competition in Washington ,D.C. with GCA earning the right to represent the Commonwealth after winning the Academic Bowl Challenge early this year.
“We really did not expect to be invited and compete in the nationals. Once we learn that we’re going we felt excited for the opportunity. We will represent the CNMI well,” said Noh.
“Their practice was continuous even before the Academic Bowl. This is the first time that a team from the CNMI got invited in the nationals after we qualified for winning last January. So it has been four months of non-stop reviewing of questions from various subjects,” said GCA vice principal Susan Pajarillaga.
The members of the team were the Top 5 when GCA held a school-wide exam for the composition of their squad in the Academic Bowl on Saipan. Each has their own particular subject where they excel in.
Dayao and Kimura are in charge of providing answers in English and science subjects Noh, who is also a member of the CNMI MathCourt team that competed in San Francisco early this year, is also in charge of the current events questions. Pajarillaga will take care of arts and sports, while Victoria will be responsible for history and geography.
“They always have fun with our study sessions but they also make it a point to be serious with their reviews. They like to argue a lot just to prove a point, but that is all part of our study sessions,” said Pajarillaga.
“We even bought a reviewer just to give them an idea of what to expect in the national competition. There are four rounds, the warm up, bonus, 60 seconds, and stump the experts,” she added.
“We really thank the Lord for giving the chance for these talented kids to compete. We give back all the glory to Him.”
The team along with Pajarillaga and coach Genesis Prieto will leave tomorrow. They will take a United Airlines flight to Guam and from there will go to Honolulu, San Francisco, Chicago, and D.C. They will also visit major landmarks in Washington, D.C. like the Library of Congress.
