St. Francis Academy

Harsh Patel (center) with his mother and his uncle.

Harsh Patel placed 8th overall in the 2010 New Jersey state geography bee held at Rowan University on April 9, 2010. He received a certificate and other prizes for his achievement.

Congratulations, Harsh!

Read the rest of this post for his experience….

Harsh Patel with SFA President Sr. Dora Sartino, MFIC

From Harsh Patel:

“On April 9, I went to Rowan University for the 2010 New Jersey state geography bee. 104 students across the state had taken the written test and scored high enough to make it to the state level. They started the competition by dividing the 104 of us into five groups, each group going into a different classroom.

We had a total of eight rounds, in which eight persons answered eight questions. I got seven out of eight questions right, for a total of 7 points. What they did next was pick out the top ten scoring students to be in the final round. Seven people who had a score of eight, went to the top ten. Seventeen other people tied with a score of seven points, including me. To pick out three more people, the seventeen of us went into another classroom for a tiebreaker. They did this by asking us all the same question and having us answer by writing on a little whiteboard. I made it into the top ten by correctly answering “China” to the question: “The Taklimakan Desert is south of the Tian Shan Mountains in what country?”

In the final round, we were asked many difficult questions. I placed eighth overall in the state of New Jersey after being asked the question: “In which state did the Battle of Shiloh take place?”

All the geography bee participants received a T-shirt and certificate for their achievements. I received these two and won a five dollar Dunkin Donuts gift card in a raffle. The first place winners of the state bees all go to the national competitions held in Washington, D.C.”

Harsh Patel with Social Studies teacher Mr. Tony Martin