2-20-08

Fall Mountain HS Team Wins World Affairs Competition

By Chuck Bingaman, Contributing Writer

            Fall Mountain Regional High School won the Academic WorldQuest competition on knowledge of world affairs Tuesday evening at the School for International Training in Brattleboro and won a trip to Washington DC in April to challenge 49 other winning teams from around the country.

Fall Mountain’s team included seniors Jimmy Healy, Andrew Street, Jake Chamberlain, and sophomore Lindsay Sanchez-Navarro, and they were coached by Fall Mountain history and psychology teacher Nick Belsky.

    Fall Mountain's Academic WorldQuest team members include Jimmy Healy, Jake Chamberlain, Lindsay Sanchez-Navarro and Andrew Street. Chuck Bingaman photo. 
            Sponsored by the Windham World Affairs Council of Vermont and the World Affairs Councils of America, the annual competition pits four-student teams from area high schools in a challenging 50-question contest.  Questions covered international law, UN peacekeeping operations, people in the news, countries, current events, economics, and great decisions.

            Fall Mountain, which had participated in the past four competitions, this year bested teams from Kimball Union Academy in Meriden NH, Vermont Academy in Saxtons River VT, Brattleboro Union High School and the Putney School.

            “We did a lot more preparation this year than we ever had before!” noted Andrew Street after the session.

            Coach Belsky said that this year’s World Affairs Councils of America study curriculum was very helpful and that each of his team members had to write a report on an area of concentration to get on the team.  Belsky added that each team member had four comprehensive world affairs web sites to follow for the past many months and that their experience from past WorldQuest competitions was helpful.  See http://www.worldaffairscouncils.org/programs/flagship/worldquest for information about WorldQuest including the 2008 Study Guide and sample questions from previous years.

            “We’re hoping to attract teams from several more area high schools for Academic WorldQuest in the future,” said Margo Neale, President of the Windham World Affairs Council of Vermont and chairperson of the event.  “Interested students or coaches can learn all about us at our web site at www.windhamworldaffairs.org.”

            Academic WorldQuest received sponsorship funds for the fourth consecutive year by Entergy Vermont Yankee and from River Valley Credit Union.  Brattleboro Coop, Pizza Hut, and Latchis Theatre in Brattleboro made in-kind contributions.  SIT/World Learning hosted the competition for the fourth time.

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