Concord Hosts Geography Bowl

Students competing in the Geography Bowl enjoyed the time they were able to spend testing their knowledge and showing their skills.
Photo By Anastasiia Vorobeva

Saturday, November 12, Concord University hosted the annual Geography Bowl – a competition for West Virginia high school students in Geography. The event was put on by the West Virginia Geographic Alliance and required a lot of preparations. “It takes a village,” says Dr. Joseph Manzo, Geography professor at Concord University and the supervisor of the event. “It takes a lot of people to make it work.”

    Fourteen West Virginia schools including Independence High School, Capital High School, PikeView High School, Pocahontas High Schools and others, came to participate in the event and compete for the title of the winner. The thirteen main rounds took place in the classrooms of Concord’s Administration Building, where students met teams from other schools and tested their knowledge on different topics, such as Asia, the United States, National Parks, etc.

    David Bard, who use to teach history at Concord and who has volunteered for the Geography Bowl for about five years now, said about this year’s event that “it was better than average. Teams were well prepared and competitive. It was a closer competition than some years in the past, but we were missing a team which was a dominant team.” Bard read questions to the teams this year and he said about students’ knowledge of geography that he was surprised “both ways,” because sometimes students missed very simple questions, but after that answered very difficult ones right.

    After thirteen rounds, students and volunteers gathered together in the Ball Room of the Student Center for the announcement of the finalists. The first individual place for the highest score was Tyler “TJ” Jude from Shady Spring High School, with second place going to Dakota Miller from PikeView High School.

    The two teams who competed in the final round were Webster High School and Sissonville High School. Sissonville High School won with 62 to 44. All the students who participated in the Geography Bowl received a $500 scholarship if they chose to attend Concord.

    Olivia Montgomery, a junior at Sissonville High School, said the team was very happy that they won and that it was fun to study with teammates and spent a night in Pipestem. About the overall organization of the event, Montgomery thinks that the “moderators were very kind; a lot of students were very helpful and they paid a lot of attention double checking everything, making sure that the right person got to answer the question. I saw it was very well organized.”

    The event gave students an opportunity to meet a lot of new people, explore Concord University and test their knowledge. “I like the fact that students come from the variety of high schools,” said Manzo, “they get along well, they have good time, Concord treats them well, and they end up gaining the benefit of scholarship opportunities and academic advantage over their peers.”

    Olga Novikova, a volunteer from Concord University said “I think that Geography Bowl provides many great opportunities for kids from high schools around the area. They have a chance to compete to win great scholarships, which help them to pursue their higher education. The Geography Bowl also helps to motivate students to continue their studies in Geography field. I think that students who participate are very intelligent and show great results each year!”

    Manzo believes that the Geography Bowl is a good event for West Virginia, as it improves students’ knowledge in geography and attracts possible new students to Concord. “If the students come here, I think all benefit,” says Manzo, “We benefit by having good students come from the high schools around us, and the students benefit because this is, we think, a good place – conducive to learning, and support for those who are away from home for the first time.”