Bay Area Students Compete in State Geographic Bee

Students from all over California showed off their geography skills Friday at the 22nd annual statewide National Geographic Bee.

A total of 102 students, their families and teachers filled the recital hall of Consumnes River College in Sacramento with nervous, excited energy as they prepared to take on questions ranging from United States airport codes and the cities they service to current events in other countries.

To get to the state competition, students had to win a Bee hosted by their school and place in the top 100 on a qualifying test; something that state Bee coordinator Dr. Stephen Cunha said isn’t an easy task.

“It’s difficult, students, to reach any state academic final,” Cunha, a professor and chair of the Geography department at Humboldt State University, said as he addressed the students before the competition began. “But we have the mega Bee here […] we have 10% of the nation’s students, so if you can make it in California, you can make it anywhere.”

Dr. Debra Travis, president of Consumnes River College, was also on hand to show her appreciation to the teachers and parents who had helped the students get to the state-level Bee. She also had a few words for the students.

“Really, you are our future leaders. You are our hope, and I have great confidence when I look out across this room at all of you and realize our future is in your hands and I’m very pleased to see that,” Travis said.

Sponsored by the National Geographic Society, Plum Creek Timber Company and Google, the competition split the 4th through 8th grade students into five groups of 20 for eight preliminary rounds. The ten students with the highest scores went on to the final round in the recital hall later that day.

A record-breaking 24 students obtained a perfect score, prompting a semi-final tiebreaking round. The round lasted about half an hour until only ten students were standing—Thomas Horn from Piedmont, Giorgio Cico from Fairfax, Kenan Perry from Tiburon, Namit Mishra from Sunnyvale, Francis Le from San Jose, Tuvya Bergson-Michelson of Hillsborough, Saransh Gupta from nearby San Ramon, Viba Vijayakumar from San Marcos, Nikhil Palanki from Solana Beach and Isaac Gray from San Diego.

Tuvya Bergson-Michelson won the finals, the first time a 4th grade student has won the state’s Geographic Bee, winning $100, a digital copy of every National Geographic published and a trip to Washington, D.C. to compete in the national competition in May. Second place winner Thomas Horn received $75 and a digital copy of National Geographic. Namit Mishra placed third and got $50 plus a digital copy of National Geographic.

• The winning question: “What country is the only predominately Muslim country to have a currency called the rupee?”
• The answer: Pakistan.

Here’s a look at some of the amazing and talented students that competed in the Bee:

Newark  Anirudh Kumar, an 8th grader from Challenger School Ardenwood, has been competing in geography Bees for three years and made it to the state Bee all three years. In 6th grade, he placed 6th in the competition. He also enjoys math, wants to explore Antarctica and possibly work for National Geographic or Google after he finishes school. He didn’t make it to the final round this year, but had a near-perfect score, getting the first seven questions of the preliminaries right.

“The best thing about geography is finding where places are and learning stuff like current events,” Kumar said. “I’m always interested in what happens around the world.”

Justin Cheon, 13, is in 8th grade at John F. Kennedy Middle School in Cupertino. He’s been competing in his school’s Geography Bee since 6th grade, but has been interested in geography since reading a Geo Whiz book in third grade. He’s also interested in science and wants to be a computer engineer later in life.

Bonnie Chen, 13, from Danville, is an 8th grader at Diablo Vista Middle School. Her second (and final) year at the Bee, she laments the fact that she will no longer be able to participate in all the school activities she loves when she enters into high school. She’s been on her school’s Math Counts team, was in Odyssey of the Mind and won first place with another student in the school’s science fair.

“The learning itself is really interesting,” Chen said of the competitions she’s been in. “It’s fun to learn new things. The only problem is when I learn about something really interesting and cool, they never ask me about it.”

 12-year-old Saransh Gupta is in 7th grade at Gale Ranch Middle School in San Ramon. He’s been competing for two years, and tied for 7th place in this year’s state Bee. He’s interested in math and history, and has traveled to Canada, Florida, Las Vegas and the Grand Canyon.

To prepare for the Bee, Gupta said, “I studied a lot, slept a lot and ate a good breakfast.”

And at the younger end of the spectrum was 10 year-old Jeffrey Khau from Danville, a 4th grader at Montair Elementary School. Hong prepared for the Bee by drawing his own maps, putting rivers and mountain ranges in their appropriate places on the globe, a method that seemed to pay off, as Khau made it into the top 20 semi-final round. He loves learning about the cultural aspect of geography and has been studying it for quite some time.

“I started reading about it in kindergarten,” Khau said. “I was curious and I kept asking my mom questions and then she just told me to start reading books about it.”

Los Altos native Jeffrey Hong, 12, is a 6th grade student at Santa Rita School. His first year at the Geographic Bee, Hong also likes reading and writing and wants to be a computer engineer in the future. To him, the best part about geography is knowing where everything is for future travels.

Cupertino student Srikar Boinapally, 11, is in 6th grade at Lawson Middle School. This was his first year competing in the Bee, but has liked reading maps for years. He also likes studying history, and loves learning about the Ancient Greeks.

Hansen Dube, a 12 year-old 7th grader from Danville, was also a Geographic Bee first-timer. He has traveled to around the globe to places like Norway, Italy and Japan. He said he competed in his school Bee this year so he could get out of math class.

13 year-old Trisha Agrawal from Thornton Junior High School in Fremont has been competing in the Bee for three years. She’s traveled to India, the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Switzerland and Italy. She enjoys math and wants to get into medicine when she’s older.

“I first got interested in geography when I used to go shopping with my mom at the supermarket,” Agrawal said. “I’d look at the labels to see where each food came from.”

The National Geographic Bee will take place on May 24 and May 25 in Washington, D.C. The top 55 students from all over the country will compete for the grand prize—a $25,000 college scholarship, a lifetime membership in the National Geographic Society and a trip to the Galapagos Islands.