Left to Right: Jake Sonderman, Sara Habibipour, Coach Mrs. Coffey, Elizabeth Shay, and Evan Spry
For the first time in Palm Valley history, our high school Academic World Quest team won First Place out of eight other schools in the Coachella Valley. Team members included Jake Sonderman, Sara Habibipour, Elizabeth Shay, Evan Spry and Coach Andrea Coffey.
Although this would normally mean that they could go to Washington D.C., they competed virtually in the national Academic World Quest competition. Out of 105 teams across the United States, the Palm Valley team ranked 14th!
Academic World Quest is a competition about foreign affairs, international relations, and current events. Here are the topics that each member specialized in:
- Jake: The Post-Pandemic Economy, Exploring Peace in a World of Conflict, India-Pakistan relations, China-Latin America relations, and the International Labor Organization.
- Sara: Global Protests, U.S. Foreign Service in the 21st Century, Red Sea conflict, America’s approach to Artificial Intelligence, and Uzbekistan.
- Elizabeth: Fraying Alliances, U.S. Foreign Service in the 21st Century, Modern Slavery and Human Trafficking, Philippines-US relations, and the International Labor Organization.
- Evan: The Arab Spring: 10 years later, Climate Change, US-Northern Triangle relations, Exploring Peace in a World of Conflict, and Uzbekistan.
If this sounds interesting to you, consider joining World Quest next year!
Source: AWQ winner and thebirdonfire.org blogger Sara Habibipour.
Strong work! Congratulations 👏
Congratulations PVS Academy World Quest Team!
So proud of you all!!! You put in so much hard work studying on top of all that you all already do. Congratulations!!
Wow! These topics are very current. I am very proud of these young people. Each one of you set such an example of personal and unique excellence in being you. I wish each of you the joy in the journey called life and discovering or honing your passions. It has been 35 years since I was a high school senior, and I do not recall being such a critical thinker. My life as I had planned turned out so different and funny enough better than I could of planned myself. I was rejected from my first choice of college and ended up at a university that I did not consider until they gave me a full scholarship. I ended up not pursuing my first career choice and I got married 10 years younger than I had planned and became a mother much later than I had expected, and entered a career choice that I actually derive more joy and clarity for myself than I could have ever imagined, but it was suppose to be this way. I hope that each of you will allow this journey to take its course and give you a chance to see what the wonders of life can hold. Congratulations!