On April 1st, a group of Barstow scholars arrived at the KU Edwards campus to participate in the annual Academic World Quest. Barstow’s competitors showed up to the event with 2 teams of four, one of which was comprised entirely of seniors.
The way the challenge works is fairly simple. Each team of 4 sits together while 10 questions are projected onto a screen one at a time. Within 45 seconds, each team must discuss and write down their answer for the question before the next question is displayed. After each round, the answer sheets are collected, and at the end of all 10 rounds, the points are totaled in order to determine a winner.
Though the competition took place on April 1st this year, World Quest sent out their study guide in January. The study guide contained the topics as well as links to different sources, from which, the hosts of the event directly pulled all questions.
This year’s topics were: Securing the Future of the World’s Wildlife, The Arctic Council: Frozen Cooperation, Atrocity Prevention and Accountability, Combating Global Food Insecurity, Economic Sanctions – A Double-Edged Sword, Great Decisions, Country in Focus: Ethiopia, The Future of Supply Chains, Battle of the Century: Autocracy vs. Democracy, and Current Events.
With this information in mind, Barstow’s World Quest chapter quickly created teams and divided the topics amongst ourselves based on our interests and academic strengths. From that point forward, every spare moment leading to the day of the World Quest competition was spent reviewing the study guide.
It started off on a bit of a bumpy start with one of our senior team members sleeping in (no worries, they only missed some of lunch), but overall I would say everyone had a fun time at World Quest this year. One of the seniors on the team, Allison Orozco ’23, spoke on her experience at the event.
“I thought World Quest was very fun this year. I enjoyed the collaboration that allowed for an enlightening and educational experience. I especially love working with my peers and Ms. Guldin,” Orozco commented.
By my sophomore year, I had entered myself into this annual, low-stakes, historical and current events trivia event just to try something new, but after my first competition I was hooked. Previously, I would never have pictured myself participating in such a contest, but now, as president of Barstow’s World Quest teams, I cannot imagine what my high school experience would have looked like without it.
Though none of Barstow’s teams walked away with a first place trophy in hand, the rewarding feeling of gaining knowledge on a myriad of historical and current subjects left every Barstow participant satisfied. If you’re interested in World Quest, feel free to contact Angela Guldin.
