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ACS takes first Academic Challenge Bowl win
Agape Christian School takes its first Middle School Academic Challenge Bowl win last Saturday at the Saipan Southern High School cafeteria. (Kimberly A. Bautista)
After nearly four hours, Agape Christian School took home its first win in this year’s Middle School Academic Challenge Bowl last Saturday at the Saipan Southern High School cafeteria.
The academic challenge bowl, hosted by the SSHS National Honor Society, saw ACS’ overall score of 765 topping Green Meadow School, which came in second with 755 points. Third place winner was Mount Carmel School, which finished with a score of 735. The Francisco M. Sablan Middle School finished fourth overall with a 690 score while Hopwood Middle School completed the top five with 610 points.
According to ACS principal Jimeian Pang, this is the first time ACS took home first place in the bowl. And although she may not have expected the ACS victory, she and her students were nonetheless happy.
“We have been competing for the last few years. My students have been working really hard…and we really didn’t expect to get first but the students tried their very best to read as much as possible. I just gave them as many stuff to read. We didn’t even know how many questions there would be,” Pang said.
Pang said she prepared her students for just two weeks because they were involved in other extracurricular activities so they really weren’t expecting much.
“When they made it to the top three, it was unexpected that’s why we were very happy and excited. My greatest joy was to see them hug one another. …We really didn’t expect this and we just want to thank God,” she said.
Zhu Li, the captain of the team, said he was surprised but joyful at the same time.
According to Li, their strategy to winning this year was to let each team member focus on one subject and learn that subject as much as they could.
The last winner of the Middle School Academic Challenge bowl was Marianas Baptist Academy, taking first in 2018.
