Jericho Middle School student Matthew Lecher won the school competition of the National Geographic Bee last month and has since advanced as a semifinalists eligible to compete in the 2016 New York State National Geographic State Bee to be held April 1.
The school Bee, where students answered questions on geography, was the first round in the 28th annual National Geographic Bee. The runner up was Dario Hassankhani and other Jericho Middle School finalists were Andrew Cheung, Suhraj Chauhan, Jillian Davis, Dario Hassankhani, Steven Yu, Tiffany Chen, Michael Dicpinigaitis, Jason Choi, Austin Chen, Jeff Qasemi and Michael Pecorara.
New York State is the second level of the National Geographic Bee competition, which is now in its 28th year. School Bees were held in schools with fourth- through eighth-grade students throughout the state to determine each school champion.
School champions then took an online qualifying test. The National Geographic Society has invited up to 100 of the top-scoring students in each of the 50 states, District of Columbia, Department of Defense Dependents Schools and U.S. territories to compete in the state Bees.
Each state champion will receive $100, the National Geographic book The National Parks: An Illustrated History and a medal, and will journey to Washington, D.C., to represent their state in the National Geographic Bee Championship at National Geographic Society headquarters, May 22-25. The national champion will receive a $50,000 college scholarship and lifetime membership in the National Geographic Society. The national champion will also travel (along with one parent or guardian), all expenses paid, on a Lindblad expedition to Southeast Alaska aboard National Geographic Sea Lion, including Glacier Bay National Park, in recognition of the 100th anniversary of the National Park Service. Travel for the trip is provided by Lindblad Expeditions and National Geographic. Visit www.natgeobee.org for more information on the National Geographic Bee.
—Jericho Schools
