A team of four Thornton Academy seniors- Vincent Falardeau, Monika Kaczorowska, Ethan Nadeau, and Connor Northway- placed first in the Academic World Quest competition on Feb. 27 at the Council on International Educational Exchange offices in Portland. The state-wide geography contest was sponsored by the World Affairs Council of Maine.
The four member team from Thornton Academy finished 11 points ahead of the second place team. Their victory secures them a spot in the national competition to be held in Washington D.C. on April 28.
This is the third year that Vincent and Ethan have competed in the Academic World Quest competition. Two years ago, as sophomores, they also made it to the national competition. This year the team has hopes to finish near the top.
“We’re thrilled to have the opportunity to compete in the national competition! The national competition has five new categories that we need to study, so we definitely have a lot of hard work ahead of us. That being said, I think we’re all very excited to learn more about each of the new categories and try to do our best at nationals,” said Monika.
The team is coached by Thornton Academy teachers Mike Nelson and Tom Rackmales. Both Nelson and Rackmales teach AP Human Geography, a course that focuses on migration, population, and anthropology. All students on the team have taken the course and credit the class and their teachers for helping them to prepare for the competition.
“If there ever was a question in our own specific category that we weren’t sure about, we talked about it as a team and almost all of the times we could answer a question correctly because of the knowledge our teammates had from different TA classes. It was great to see how the things we learn in classes can be used in different contexts. Mr. Nelson’s AP Human Geography class was by far the most helpful. A few questions in the Geography and Current Events category regarded issues frequently discussed in the AP Human Geography class. I think that gave us an advantage over teams from other schools,” said Monika.
The four students are passionate about geography and global affairs. They chose a geographically-inspired name for their team: Sagarmatha, the Nepalese name for Mount Everest.
“I plan to study geography in college and probably go into a career related to geography, maybe as a cartographer or a teacher/professor. Studying America’s Diplomats and the Department of State for this competition has made me think it would be pretty cool to be a diplomat or join the foreign service,” said Vincent.
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