Academic WorldQuest

WorldQuest is our own World Affairs Council, more exactly the World Affairs Council of Charlotte’s, creation. There is nothing really like it at the adult or the high school level around the country. This exciting quiz competition test students on their awareness of the world around us and allows them to have fun at the same time. We are headed into our Third Annual competition and are already up to 50 competing teams from high schools all around the country.

This year's team for the Sacramento Council was determined at the McClatchy High School Academic WorldQuest Competition on Saturday February 25. After earning a place on our Sacramento team Audrey, Daniel, Emily, and Matt received an all expenses paid trip to Washington DC to compete in the National Academic WorldQuest competition. They had a chance to explore our nation's capital and meet other students and adults who share their passion for world affairs. Click here to see the itinerary.

For more pictures please click here.

Comments from this year's participants:

"For the few weeks that we had leading up to the Washington D.C. trip, we met with Alex Chaikin every Thursday at lunch. Alex had the simple job of getting us to learn pretty much everything about the world in general in less than a month. We started off with this year’s edition of the Great Decisions magazine, with each one of us focusing on two of the eight chapters. We followed that by familiarizing ourselves with certain regions of the world, learning the flags, ethnicities, religions, and governments of the region’s countries. And, we researched the landmarks and Nobel Prize winners of our respective regions. It was a lot of information to absorb, but Alex was there every week to sort us out and give us some sense of direction. And, despite an incredibly short amount of preparation time, we learned quite a bit about the world."
- Matt Kawahara

"Our actual trip to Washington D.C. was very fun. We stayed at a really nice hotel, packed with students from all over the country. Everywhere I turned, people wearing WorldQuest shirts blinded me with those wonderful shades of maroon and neon yellow...The competition itself consisted of 48 teams of four, although one team brought an alternate in case one its’ team members died. It was fun to put some of that studying to use, and in some cases just toss out a random guess. It was also nice to meet other students, even German ones who set their watches to military time. Best of all, I know next year’s team from Sacramento will completely “school” the rest of the country." "
- Daniel Lightstone

"All I heard at the very first World Quest meeting was something about a free trip to Washington DC and a chance to miss a day or two of school. Little did I know that I would embark on a journey to find my inner self through a discovery of the world around me and its constantly changing cultures and leaders. I have been known to exaggerate, but I can honestly say that I did learn a lot because of World Quest. After the initial shock of finding that we were gong to actually study for the contest (what?), and a disastrous first study session, my excitement about the trip somewhat lessened. However, studying, while not the most exhilarating experience known to mankind, soon became enjoyable because Putin and Paul Martin are actually interesting people to read about.
Rooming with Suter (as Emily became known), hiding from Mrs. Wong with Matt and Daniel, trying to keep up with Mrs. Wong and her mad power-walking skills, and developing a deep respect for Alex, our World Quest sensei were fun. The highlight of my time, though, was sitting at the table during the contest and finding out that I actually could answer some of those questions. It also amazed me that Emily had mastered all of the flags for all of the countries in the known world, that Matt had a healthy knowledge of opera, and Daniel knew how to correctly spell the Iranian president’s last name (Ahmadinejad). In the end, 32nd place has never felt so sweet."
- Audrey Arai

"For me, the whole World Quest experience started on sort of a whim. About a week before the local competition, three seniors asked me to be on their team, but when we hadn’t met or contacted each other by two days before the event, I thought the whole thing had fallen through. Much to my surprise, I discovered that I was still the fourth member of their team, and little did I know that we’d soon be in for the experience of a lifetime. We hadn’t expected to win the local competition, but by pooling our knowledge, we were able to pull out a victory in the bonus round. Our reward? An awesome trip to Washington, D.C. to compete with the best students from around the country. We studied like crazy, each specializing in a region of the world and in specific topics (my favorite was the flags!). With the help of our World Quest mentor Alex, we prepared ourselves for the competition, which turned out to be amazing. Being the only junior, I had to prove to these seniors what I was made of and I came away from this experience with more confidence in my abilities and with the idea that I can achieve anything if I try hard enough. I came away from this experience with new knowledge of the world, new insight into myself, and most of all, three great new friends. Even though we didn’t get first place, it sure felt like winning to me!"
- Emily Suter

To support your Sacramento team in its quest to complete in D.C., please click here for a contribution form.