The United States Academic Decathlon team at Kennedy consists of nine people, and they are preparing for the State Competition March 7 and 8 after placing third at the Regional Competition.

Kennedy’s Academic Decathlon team, coached by Deb Snook, meets every Sunday afternoon to study and go over the information that is related to this year’s theme of World War I.

Academic Decathlon consists of ten categories that students must know information from that is related to the theme. The ten categories are art history, interview, science, language and literature, music, mathematics, social science, essay, speech, and economics.

Tianyi Hahn, jr., said that Academic Decathlon is very well rounded with information, but her favorite categories are art, science, social science, and the essay.

“My favorite part about Academic Decathlon would be getting to learn things that you don’t really learn in school,” Hahn said. “A lot of the classes [in school] aren’t challenging enough or they lack academic rigor, and you kind of get that through Academic Decathlon.”

The team must be divided into sections based off of students’ grade point averages.  Each team must have two to three students in all of the divisions, which are Honor, Scholastic, and Varsity. The Honor grade point average range is 3.75 or higher, the Scholastic Division grade point average range is 3.0 up to 3.75, and the Varsity Division grade point average range is below 3.0.

How the team does at the State Competition will determine if they advance to the National Competition, which is April 24 and 25 in Honolulu, Hawaii.

photo provided by Amy Brause