For the first time, in the seven years Cornwall High School has been participating in the Foreign Affairs Club of America’s annual Academic World Quest competition, a team of five has taken first place in regionals and will move on to nationals in Washington, D.C. on April 28.
Tara Rao, Jessica Wu, Katie Frey, Ethan Davis, and Sydney Hunt answered 67 of 90 questions correctly to earn the opportunity to represent the Mid-Hudson Region as one of 60 teams in the national competition.
“I was really proud of them,” said social studies teacher and advisor Nancy Larkin. “They worked really hard. I’ve seen the team, over the years, get better and better, even though we only have a few of the same students. It was wonderful. It was very exciting.”
Each year the Foreign Affairs Club Council creates a competition based on 10 topics. Students receive hundreds of pages of material and various links to web sites with articles or videos on each topic. This year’s subjects included: NAFTA, ASEAN at 50, India’s bid for global power, combating climate change, cybersecurity, Saudi Arabia, great decisions, the peace-building toolkit, America’s diplomats, and current events.
Although students should know something about each subject, they generally become experts in two or three. To aid in the learning process, they make presentations before the other club members.
The students meet about once every two weeks, starting in October, and then more frequently as the competition draws closer.
Despite all the preparation after school, Larkin believes it was a snowstorm the day before the competition that helped the team earn first place. She said the students are so busy with other activities, but with school closed, they had the chance to spend the day reviewing the material.
Experience also played a part in the students’ success. Rao and Hunt have been on the team before, so they were able to let their peers know what to anticipate in terms of procedure, how the questions are asked, and how detailed they are.