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HHCA TAKES THIRD AT LOCAL ACADEMIC WORLDQUEST COMPETITION
from The Crest: Issue #4
by thecresthhca
By Nicolas Panzarella
On Saturday, January 28, 2023, Hilton Head Christian Academy participated in the World Affairs Council’s local Academic WorldQuest competition against ten other local schools (both public and independent). The local competition is a qualifier for the national Academic WorldQuest competition in April, which HHCA attended last year after taking first place in the 2021-2022 local competition. Because HHCA won the competition last year, this year’s competition was hosted in the PAC at HHCA.
Academic WorldQuest is a quiz bowl-like competition in which teams of four students compete against each other in answering questions about world events. These events are organized into different topics which make up the five rounds of the competition. The topics for this year’s local competition were Securing the Future of the World’s Wildlife, Combating Global Food Insecurity, The Future of Supply Chains, Battle of the Century: Autocracy vs. Democracy, and Current Events. Each topic got one round, and each round consisted of ten questions, with each question being worth one point. There were 50 questions in total.
HHCA’s team for this year consisted of Christopher Nguyen, Sophia Blackwell, Luke Williams, Peter Rein, and alternate Nicolas Panzarella. Mr. Rudnickas was the team’s coach. Christopher Nguyen, Sophia Blackwell, and Nicolas Panzarella participated last year, while Luke and Peter participated in the competition for the first time. Since only four students can be on the competition floor at one time, the alternate Nicolas Panzarella switched in for Sophia Blackwell after the third round of the competition.
The competition itself had very close results. After the main round, May River High School’s team was in first place with 30 points out of 50 possible points. Heritage Academy was in second place, close behind May River. HHCA had 26 points out of 50 possible points and was tied with other schools for third place, which warranted a tiebreaker round. After another tie and a second tiebreaker round, Hilton Head Christian Academy came in third place with May River High School and Heritage Academy keeping their first and second places, respectively. Because May River High School’s team took first place, they will participate in the national competition.
