Freeport HS students head to D.C. for Academic World Quest

The World Affairs Council of Maine is preparing to sponsor a team of four students from Freeport High School to Washington, D.C., in April for the 2009 Academic World Quest, a team competition that tests competitors’ knowledge of international affairs, geography, history and culture.

The four-member team from Freeport High School bested 10 other Maine high school teams at the World Affairs Council of Maine competition held last April to win a place at to the national competition, which will be held April 4, 2009, at the National Press Club in the nation’s capital. In Washington, the team will compete against roughly 45 other high school teams from around the country.

The Freeport students making the trip are:

Owen Lehmer, a senior
Annique Milite, a senior
Taylor Kissin, a sophomore
Spencer Egan, a sophomore

This is the third time Freeport High School will send a team to the national competition. Karen Massey, the social studies teacher at Freeport High School who advises the team, says the Freeport team has always placed in the top three, though has yet to take home first place. Those are great results considering the stiff competition. “Some of these schools are charter schools for international affairs,” Massey says. “So I’m very pleased a small public school from Maine finishes so well.”

The questions the students will be asked are not easy. The categories they will face this year include Population Issues in Developing Countries, Biotechnology and Genetics, Alternative Fuels, Connectivity, Globalization and Transnational Crime.

Participation in the World Quest team is extracurricular for the students. Massey says they put in hours of their own time, over the summer and after school studying for the competition. “It says we have smart kids who are interested in international affairs,” Massey says.

The World Affairs Councils of America launched the national Academic World Quest competition in March 2003. The World Affairs Council of Maine has been conducting World Quest since 1998.

The World Affairs Council of Maine is in the process of planning the 2009 World Quest competition to be held in October.  For more information about World Quest or how to form a corporate team for the competition, contact the council’s office at 207-780-4552 or e-mail John LaBrie, executive director of the World Affairs Council of Maine, at executivedirector@wacmaine.org.

The World Affairs Council of Maine is a nonpartisan nonprofit organization dedicated to promoting the understanding of international affairs and supporting international education in Maine.