There were four students who went to state for the Academic Decathlon in Anchorage. The students’ names were Joshua Felcra, Alaina Chase, Brandon Nollner, and Linia Woodbridge. This year’s topic was the 1960s.

Each student had to complete in 10 subjects; 7 out of the 10 of those subjects were scored using multiple choice tests. The subjects were Math, Science, Music, Art, Literature, Social Sciences and Economics. The other three subjects were a prepared speech, an impromptu speech, and an essay. There was also an interview.

When they traveled for state, they also did a Super Quiz, which is a public competition with 39 questions. There are three different levels which included three competitors for each level and 13 questions each. There is a Honors Level, in which the competitors had to have a 3.6-4.0 GPA; the Scholastic Level is 3.0-3.6 GPA; and the Varsity Level with a GPA of 3.0 or below. When the Super Quiz started, the Varsity level went first and each level had 10 seconds for each question.

On the GILA team for the Super Quiz, there was no one in the Honors level, three in the Scholastic level, and one on the Varsity level. Even though they had no one on the Honors level, which meant they were only able to answer 26 questions, the team placed third in the medium school division.

Next year, teacher advisor Dawn Pomrening hopes that there is more students that participate in the Academic Decathlon, and that she is looking for more people and would love to have more and the students don’t need a 4.0 GPA to be in the team. Next year’s topic is “In Sickness and in Health,” based on healthcare; the novel is Frankenstein. There is never a too low GPA score to be on the team, said Ms. Pomrening,  and they like to have a lot of snacks and watch a lot of films.