Home school team to represent Alaska at national academic competition

WASILLA — Though many students express general distaste for exams, a select few actually take tests for fun.

At the end of February, a group of home-schoolers who are enrolled in the Interior Distance Education of Alaska (IDEA) program won the GCI Alaska Academic Decathlon championship in Anchorage for the very first time.

“It was just so exciting,” said Lori Zulliger, an IDEA contact teacher and academic decathlon coach.

The accomplishment represented a payoff of months of studying economics, art, literature, math, music, science and social science — on top of the students’ regular coursework — as pertains to a given theme. At state, each student is tested on these subjects, and is required to participate in speech, essay and interview competitions on the annual theme.

Zulliger said she and fellow coach Scott Gingrich were proud of the effort their students put forth.

“Our kids just work so hard, and they work independently,” Zulliger said

Of the 10-person team the IDEA coaches led to the championship, six live in the Mat-Su Valley: Henrique Miller from Talkeetna; Olivia Siegel, Jonathan Raynovic and Trinity Johnson (alternate) from Wasilla; Owen Rohler from Sutton; and Keith Averre from Palmer.

After a Friday study session last week, Zulliger, Siegel, Raynovic and Averre came to the Frontiersman office to talk about what academic decathlon is to them.

‘It’s not just A-students’

First of all, “academic decathlon is something where kids get to get to know each other,” Zulliger said. “It’s not just A-students.”

Academic decathlon teams are made of three “A” or honor students, three “B” or scholastic students and three “C or below” or varsity students, to keep it open to students of all academic abilities.

Siegel, a sophomore, said it wasn’t so much the idea of showing her smarts or taking additional tests as it was the camaraderie of academic decathlon that first appealed to her. After competing in Battle of the Books in middle school, Siegel timidly accepted Gingrich’s invitation to attend an academic decathlon meeting as a ninth grader.

Though she expected to be intimidated by a bunch of geniuses, Siegel soon found a home among friends.

“I was like, ‘Oh my gosh, these are my people,’” she said.

Raynovic — a senior who has been competing in “AcaDeca,” as the students call it, for four years — said the activity has often had that effect on home-schooled high schoolers.

“AcaDeca has a tendency to pick up lots of waifs and strays,” Raynovic said.

But really, anyone who wants to learn more about a given subject — like this year’s “India,” last year’s “New Alternatives in Energy” and “Colonialism” from a previous year — is welcome to join AcaDeca.

“It’s a fantastic opportunity to learn and gain knowledge and master a subject,” he said.

Sophomore Averre said what sold him was a conversation that started with his mom and an IDEA teacher.

“She said it looks amazing on college (applications) … and would advance me as a person,” he remembered.

Siegel congratulated him on advancing from “a socially awkward to potato” to an AcaDeca champion in just one year.

“Decathlon becomes family so we can say things like that,” she said.

Teasing aside, Averre said she was right, and that the group aspect of AcaDeca was “probably the best experience I’ve had in schooling ever.”

He was also wooed by the scholarships available. Every student has the opportunity to win some kind of scholarship at the state and national championships, and this year a few on the IDEA team came away with a total of $6,000 for continuing education.

Given Averre’s desire to someday be a technical engineer, Siegel’s dream of being a nurse — and a special effects makeup artist — and Raynovic’s plans to attend Mat-Su College this fall and ultimately the University of Alaska Anchorage, that money would likely be put to good use.

Nationals

For the first time in its 35 years, the United States Academic Decathlon championship will be held in Anchorage. The event will be held at the William A. Egan Civic and Convention Center April 28-30. Though it is billed as a national event, teams from Canada, China and the United Kingdom are expected to compete, for a total 450 students participating.

While the Mat-Su Valley students said a national title may be outside their grasp, they are hoping to come home with as many individual medals as possible.

“It’s a national competition of nerds,” Siegel said. “This is what we live for.”

To learn more about academic decathlon in Alaska, or to volunteer as a contest judges or student workers for the 2016 national championship, visit aad.education.

Contact reporter Caitlin Skvorc at 352-2266 or caitlin.skvorc@frontiersman.com.