Fall Mountain High School’s Varsity Quiz Bowl team will compete at 7:00 p.m. next Monday, February 13, in a regional Academic WorldQuest competition at the School for International Training in Brattleboro for a slot in the national competition March 30 to April 2 in Washington, DC.

            Charlestown senior Jeryl Hewey, Walpole juniors Bryan and Pat Doyle, and Walpole sophomore Andrew Street make up Fall Mountain’s first team and are supported by alternates senior Chris Johnson of Walpole and sophomore Jim Healy of Charlestown.  Fall Mountain teacher Nick Belsky coaches the Fall Mountain team.

          Academic WorldQuest is a team competition testing competitors' knowledge of international affairs, geography, history, and culture.  The national competition is sponsored by the World Affairs Councils of America while the World Affairs Council of Windham County in Vermont sponsors the regional competition with corporate support from Entergy Yankee Nuclear Power.  Pizza Hut and the Latchis Theater in Brattleboro are donating prizes for all competing teams. For this region, the competition will be between student teams from Vermont Academy, The Putney School, Brattleboro Union High School, Leland and Gray High School, Monadnock Regional High School and Fall Mountain.

          Monday's competition consists of ten rounds of five multiple-choice questions drawn from current world events subjects such as U.S. intelligence reform, outsourcing of U.S. jobs, economic development of China, Sudan and the war in Darfor, the U.S. and global poverty, and U.S. challenges in Iraq and the Muslim world. Unlike typical college bowl competitions, there is no premium on being the first to answer questions in WorldQuest.  Rather, all teams have 30 seconds to confer together and to agree on the team’s answer to each question.  The Fall Mountain team members commented on the format Friday with Pat Doyle saying that, “It’s nice to be able to confer with our team members” in the WorldQuest format, but Jeryl Hewey noted that “the only problem is that the format takes away the speed advantage that we often have.” 

          The winner of monday's match  will advance to the finals in Washington DC where last spring 49 high school teams from around the country competed for the national championship. The local area was represented last year by a team from The Putney School in Putney, VT.

          “Academic WorldQuest is a terrific way to encourage interest in international affairs among high school students,” according to Milton Eaton of Brattleboro, current chairman of the Windham World Affairs Council.  “We had a very close contest last year for our sponsored entry at the national competition, and we are pleased to have an even larger field of competitors this year.”

          The Academic WorldQuest regional competition is open to the public, and I hope a lot of people from Walpole come to support our team.  Competition begins at 7:00 p.m. Monday, February 13, and audience members who request them will get their own scorecards so they can play along if they wish.

     The competition is in the Internaitnal Center at  the School for International Training (SIT) on Kipling Road, Brattleboro.  To reach SIT, take Exit 3 off I-91 and proceed south on Route 5 at the traffic circle one quarter mile to the first traffic light, which is Black Mountain Road. Turn right onto Black Mountain Road and follow the road over I-91, past a residential area and through two very sharp curves. After the curves, Black Mountain Road bears left. Do not turn left but bear right on Kipling Road to the top of the hill. As you go up the hill you will pass an open field on your left and you will see several large white buildings to the left. Turn left on Dickinson Road at the crest of the hill where you see the World Learning and School for International Training signs and a circle of flags.

          For further information on the Windham World Affairs Council, see www.windhamworldaffairs.org. For further information on the World Affairs Councils of America, see www.waca.org.