By Dave Matlow
UPDATE AND CORRECT Westport’s Staples High School has won first place in the 18th annual Connecticut High School Geography Challenge at the University of Connecticut in Storrs.
Celebrating the win are (l-r) James D’Amico, Social Studies Department chair and Geography team coach, Eric Wessan, Victor Hollenberg, and Scott Grundei. Missing from the photo are Jeff Loselle and Alex Nitkin. (CLICK TO ENLARGE) Dave Matlow for WestportNow.com
The competition Tuesday saw juniors Scott Grundei, Victor Hollenberg, Jeff Loselle, Alex Nitkin and Eric Wessan, beat out 14 other teams from 10 schools around the state. It was the second time Staples had entered the competition, placing second last year. (An earlier version of this story said it was the first time.)
However, according to principal John Dodig, the students that entered the contest last year did so on their own entrepreneurial initiative.
“I didn’t know what geography award they were talking about last year when I heard about it the next day,” Dodig said.
When he realized that the Staples students had pursued the academic challenge on their own, it prompted Dodig to suggest to James D’Amico, Social Studies Department chair, that Staples be formally represented in the contest this year.
And well represented they were. The Staples team earned first place in two of the four events that comprises the competitive geography program and earned second place in the remaining two events for its No. 1 overall ranking.
Team member Victor Hollenberg said that he is proudest of the 50 question segment in which the Staples team answered 44 correctly. The second place school, E.O. Smith of Storrs, had only 32 correct answers.
Fellow team members Scott Grundei said, “We won because we had a ‘ringer’ on our team” pointing to Hollenberg.
Eric Wessen added, “We call him the ‘geography meister.’” Grundei chimed in, “He’s a random map buff.”
Hollenberg admitted that geography is one of his favorite topics.
“I’ve studied Google maps since I was a little kid,” he said. “And I traveled a lot with my parents – my mom’s from Spain. I’ve got a good sense of direction.”
Dodig later said of Hollenberg, “He speaks Spanish and French and now he’s studying Mandarin.”
“It’s always fun to see Staples students interact with other schools and adults,” said D’Amico. “They always conduct themselves so well…they are so motivated to do well”.
The challenge tested the students’ geographic knowledge, understandings, and skills through a variety of team activities.
Events included an orienteering course, tests of cultural, political, and environmental knowledge, team problem solving, reading maps for different types of information, and a quiz bowl.
The High School Geography Challenge is sponsored by the Connecticut Geographic Alliance and the National Geographic Society Education Foundation.
It is the only statewide geography competition for high school students in Connecticut.
If I may make one correction:
This is NOT the first Staples team to enter the competition. The first team to enter was last year, and it consisted of myself, Nick Krosse (‘08) and Sarah Gallagher (‘09). The team was coached by Bob Aldrich, and Staples placed Second behind E.O. Smith.