Academic Decathlon Faces the Regionals
The adolescent years in one’s life are the most imperative time to challenge the mind with new topics and shifting perspectives. This helps foster a great experience by adjusting to different circumstances and develops the brain so it can be ready for the trials and tribulations in a person’s adulthood. This is why it’s essential for high schoolers to take advanced classes and join a multitude of clubs; versatility is key in this day and age, especially when upcoming generations will inherit a constantly-changing world. Academic Decathlon is a great opportunity for students of all different age groups to put their wits to a test and challenge themselves in a series of assessments ranging from math to social studies. This amazing, award-winning team at ACPHS allows our students to embrace any obstacles they may encounter and become well-rounded individuals.
Khushi Ahir will be representing the team regarding their astounding achievement during their first time at the Regionals competition, finishing ninth overall at the competition, as well helping us get to know more about her and the team.
Khushi is a sophomore, and this is her first experience being in Academic Decathlon. “Originally, what drew me to Academic Decathlon was the scholarship money, but in reality, there’s so much more to it,” she says. AcDec (short for Academic Decathlon) was foreign waters for Khushi, as she has never done anything like it before, “which makes my experience on the team that much more meaningful” she comments. “It may seem as if AcDec requires a lot of time and effort, and it does, but it’s a commitment I’m so glad I made. I’ve made incredible friends all in my first year, so now I can say that I joined AcDec for the irreplaceable experience.”
At competitions, there are a multitude of performance events, with one being an interview where a panel of judges ask the decathlete questions. “Naturally, anyone would be a little nervous before the interview,” Khushi explains, “so we usually do practice interview questions, ranging from broad to content-oriented genres.” However, AcDec is more than it’s performance events. “We also take tests from seven different subjects-all of these questions come from the United States Academic Decathlon Resource Guides. These resource guides contain a lot of information, so we end up studying quite a bit for these competitions.”
Regarding the regionals competition, Khushi admits that it was “nerve-racking” since they were a first-year team going into their very first Regionals competition ever. “Knowing that we were competing against the most fierce teams in the region was definitely daunting, but that was more of a reason to try harder, and yet we made it to State!” Khushi hopes that the disorientation that they faced at Regionals will calm down once they get to State, and they’ll waltz through the Regional competitions to come in the following years.
Amazing job to not only Khushi, but her fellow teammates and their sponsor, Mrs. Turner, as well! If you are interested in joining the team next school year, be sure to ask Mrs. Turner for more information regarding what our team does to build a strong foundation to have such an outstanding team. As always, remember to strive for the impossible and be extraordinary!
Photo credits
Google Images and the official United States Academic Decathlon website
