Seventeen Catholic schools participated in this year’s Diocese of Orange Annual Academic Junior High Decathlon held at Santa Margarita High School on March 4.
St. Hedwig School placed third in the Super Quiz category, and eighth grader Tomas Hertzog took fourth place in the Social Studies individual event. The Super Quiz requires collaborative team efforts and is comprised of 50 questions on five broad academic themes (religion, science, social studies, literature and fine arts).
Seventeen Catholic schools participated in this year’s Diocese of Orange Annual Academic Junior High Decathlon held at Santa Margarita High School on March 4.
St. Hedwig School placed third in the Super Quiz category, and eighth grader Tomas Hertzog took fourth place in the Social Studies individual event. The Super Quiz requires collaborative team efforts and is comprised of 50 questions on five broad academic themes (religion, science, social studies, literature and fine arts).
The team started studying for this competition in late October last year. They met once a week for one-hour study sessions before classes started in the morning with their team mentors Mai Marquez, who’s an advanced math teacher for fifth through eighth Grade, and Sarah Visser, an eighth grade religion and language arts teacher.
The team members also met with six other teachers as their individual subject mentors on different schedules.
There are a total of 16 members in the team. Ten of those represented the school during the recently held competition, namely: Amelia Scalas, Tomas Hertzog, Emma Lalonde, Molly Bancroft, Meghan McGlinchey, Isabella Dobbs, Alex Foy, Carson Chavez, Cole McVey and Tyler Pelonis. The remaining six were their study buddies, namely: Julia Reusch, Juliana Stepanoff, Collin Vail, Colin Murnane, Sara Balanta and Talia Singhal. According to Marquez, the students spend quite a lot of time as individuals and as team members to prepare for this event. Marquez also said, “practicing as a team is extremely important. The students support and trust each other when working as a group. The two team leaders, Amelia Scalas for Super Quiz, and Tomas Hertzog for Logic Quiz, did an excellent job in organizing the team members in each area. They recognize their teammates’ individual talents and help them to shine.”
To join the team, interested students study for an initial test, said Marquez. Their placement in the final team of 10 is dependent on their combined Super Quiz test scores and an Individual test score in the following subjects: the Roman Catholic doctrine, English, Literature, Science, Mathematics, Current Events, Social Studies and Fine Arts (Art and Music).
St. Hedwig School’s participation in the Academic Junior High Decathlon enables its students to demonstrate their academic strengths and be confident learners. To learn more, please visit their website at http://www.sthedwigk8.org/.
This article appeared in the March 29, 2017 print edition of the News Enterprise.