SACO — Thornton Academy placed fourth in the nation at the 16th Annual Carlos and Malú Alvarez Academic WorldQuest National Competition for high school students, hosted by the World Affairs Councils of America at the National Press Club on Saturday, April 28.

Hundreds of high school teams participated in the Academic WorldQuest competitions held by more than 50 World Affairs Councils across the country over the past school year and the local champions convened in Washington, D.C. to compete for the national crown.

Thornton Academy students earned an expense-paid trip to D.C. with their first place win at the statewide Maine Academic WorldQuest competition for high school students held in February at the Council on International Educational Exchange in Portland.

Their team included seniors Vincent Falardeau, Monika Kaczorowska, Ethan Nadeau, Connor Northway, and Yike “Monica” Gao (alternate). The students were accompanied by Thornton Academy teachers and Academic World Quest coaches, Tom Rackmales and Mike Nelson.

These students are passionate about geography and global affairs. They even chose a geographically-inspired name for their team: Sagarmatha, the Nepalese name for Mount Everest. This year’s AWQ National Competition featured 10 categories.

Northway says that in order to prepare for the competition categories, “it’s learning about the world, from current events, to global politics, to handling the issue of climate change. We (Team Sagarmatha) split up the topics pretty evenly and became an expert on our sections, which seemed to work pretty well.”

This competition is the second time that Falardeau and Nadeau have competed in the national competition.

Falardeau provided insight for individuals interested in competing sharing,

“Start paying close attention to what is going on around the world to prepare for the obscure Current Events questions they may have,” he said. “Find news sources you like (and) bookmark them, and read the international news every once in a while. I would also recommend taking AP Human Geography and taking an interest in maps; there is a Geography section at the state level, which is key to getting ahead of the other teams and winning).”

This also being the second competition for Nadeau, he was pleased with his team’s performance.

“Competing against other motivated students was a worthwhile experience. Our team and advisors worked very hard in the weeks leading up to the competition, and we ranked fourth place in the AWQ National Competition,” he said.

During the trip, the team also had the opportunity to explore Washington, D.C. Kaczorowska took the opportunity to visit George Washington University and accept their offer for enrollment for the Fall of 2018. She also shared other favorite memories from the trip.

“It was fun to spend the weekend in D.C. with the team and our coaches. I think my favorite memory was when we went to the National Mall one evening. We sat on the stairs of the Lincoln Memorial and looked at the Washington Monument light up. It was nice to reflect on the competition while taking in the amazing DC views,” said Kaczorowska.

The World Affairs Councils of America represents and supports a network of 95 nonpartisan, nonprofit Councils across the U.S. that are dedicated to educating, inspiring and engaging Americans in international affairs and the critical global issues of our times.

For more information, visit: worldaffairscouncils.org.