Juneau-Douglas High School students got back Sunday from an “exhausting” three days competing against the best and brightest from around the state at the 33rd annual GCI Alaska Academic Decathlon held in Anchorage.
This year, 13 students participated, said Academic Decathlon advisor Karina Reyes: Gillian Smith, Alex Eagan, River Reyes-Boyer, Ramiro Garcia, Finn Yerkes, Tasha Elizarde, Matthew Woodland, Theo Houck, Nowielle Corpuz, Janessa Goodman, Thomas Kappler, Emme MacDonald and Raven Ward.
Students from across Alaska compete in the competition in individual and team events including economics, essays, art, interviews, language, literature, math, music, science, social science and speech.
The Juneau team brought home more than 21 medals, Reyes said, placing fourth overall; winning third place in the Division 1 super quiz challenge. The team also received the Fleetwood Achievement Medal, which recognizes the school that had the highest percentage of improvement from the previous year’s competition — 67 percent or 14,000 points more than last year.
“The competition was fierce but friendly,” Reyes noted in an email to the team parents.
In the honors category, Gillian Smith won a $1,000 scholarship as well as a silver medal in literature, silver in interview and bronze in music. Emme MacDonald won gold in interview. Alex Eagan won gold in science, silver in economics and bronze in social studies. Janessa Goodman showcased her speech, which won a gold in the honors alternate category. She also won a gold medal in math and gold in essay.
In the scholastic category, Matthew Woodland won silver in math. Finn Yerkes won bronze in science. Tasha Elizarde won gold in literature and bronze in art.
In the varsity category, Theo Houck won a $1,000 scholarship as well as gold in literature, silver in speech, silver in music and silver in interview. Nowielle Corpuz won bronze in science.
The team will not be resting on its laurels for long, Reyes said.
“I give them a month’s break,” she said. “As soon as we know what the subject is for next year, we start studying.”
A suggestion that team members might get the summer off draws a hearty laugh.
“We keep in touch via email or online,” Reyes said, although she acknowledged the true studying starts in the fall.
The team members meet every Saturday for at least three hours, she said, explaining that Academic Decathlon is not a class but an extra-curricular activity.
Decathletes get a subject, or a larger thematic topic, for the year; they then get to study all the subjects connected to that topic.
This year, the topic was World War II so they studied atomic and nuclear physics, the economic impact of the war, the music and art of the era, and literature from authors including Virginia Woolf, Reyes said.
“The beauty of this is that it’s very interdisciplinary,” she said. “The curriculum helps integrate all this information so that it makes sense to them.”
If the student joins the team as a freshman, Reyes says, they will graduate with what amounts to a well-rounded university education. The theme changes yearly. In the past few years, the decathlon has covered WWI, India, Alternatives in Energy, European Renaissance, Russia, China, and the Age of Empire.
“It’s really wonderful when we can get students as freshmen or sophomores — they recognize the value (of the team) and stay with us,” she said. “It’s definitely time-consuming, but it’s one of those things they carry with them the rest of their lives.”
The team is not funded by the high school, but through fundraisers and donations, Reyes said, adding the cost for travel really adds up.
“It’s open to everyone and anyone,” she said., “We want to make sure everyone gets the opportunity to travel to state.”
Another big cost is the study guides, which run about $1,000. Without those, Reyes said, the team cannot be competitive with the other teams.
“It’s a very inclusive group,” Reyes stressed. “It’s for anyone interested in learning.”
Anyone interested in donating can do so by sending a check to the high school earmarked “JDHS Academic Decathlon,” Reyes said. For more information, check out the team’s blog at http://jdhsacadeca.blogspot.com/.
Contact reporter Liz Kellar at 523-2246 or liz.kellar@juneauempire.com.
The 2017 Academic Decathlon team members are: top row from left, Jeff Short, Wendy Whelan, Matthew Woodland, Ramiro Garcia, Raven Ward, Janessa Goodman, Gillian Smith, Finn Yerkes; middle row from left, Alex Eagan, Theo Houck, Karina Reyes, Emme MacDonald, Tasha Elizarde; bottom row from left, Nowielle Corpuz, Thomas Kappler, and River Reyes-Boyer. (Photo courtesy Lisa J. Seifert)
