As an annual gathering, members of California Scholarship Federation California Junior Scholarship Federation (CJSF) and California Scholarship Federation (CSF) attended the central region conference in Porterville, CA. The event was held at Sequoia Middle School from 8 a.m-3 p.m., April 14.
Prior to the conference, senior Brady Lee was nominated for the Charles Seymour Memorial Award, which comes with $2000. Throughout the day, Lee was interviewed about his upcoming career goals and had the potential to be awarded an additional $3000. Despite Lee’s various accomplishments, he did not receive the additional scholarship.
During the conference, a major event is the Quiz Bowl, where schools all over California compete in a game-show fashion, answering a series of questions. Although FC was not planning on participating, advisor Molly Sargent quickly formed a team of three members, senior Dana King, junior Ashley Erickson and sophomore Daniel Moore.
Some questions consisted of basic subjects such as English, math and history, while others were trivia questions from all subjects. Despite not being prepared, FC representatives worked together and were able to win first place, breaking the record held by Gustine High School, who has come in first place for the past three years.
According to Sargent, she was satisfied with the victory and believes that the students were able to win due to the education they receive at FC. She is glad the team answered a Bible question correct because it is a good way to represent the school.
“I am very proud of our team,” Sargent said. “They won by quite a lot, and the fact that they won a Bible question made me even more proud. I think that the students did a great job without preparing much because we have a very good education here and they are very intelligent three individuals who pay attention to what goes around.”
Erickson says that even though she was unaware of the Quiz Bowl until the last minute, participating was an enjoyable experience.
“None of us even knew we were going to do the Quiz Bowl,” Erickson said. “So it came as a big surprise when Mrs. Sargent told us we had to form a last minute team. I had no idea what to expect, but it was actually a lot of fun and I knew the answers to most of the questions, more than I had expected to; winning made it that much more fun.”
Moore agrees with Erickson and says that he is pleased with the win, despite lack of preparation. He commends his teammates for working together as one.
“I did not know that I would be participating in the Quiz Bowl, but it was a lot of fun,” Moore said. “I did not expect to win, but after the first round I knew we had a chance. I was shocked because we did not prepare for this at all yet we did a good job.”
Freshman Sarah Peterson says that going to the Quizbowl was an excellent way to support fellow students. Peterson is also glad that she had a chance to earn her service hours.
“I went because I needed to earn my service hours,” Peterson said. “But I actually enjoyed the experience because it was a good way to hang out with my friends and get my hours as well. The Quiz Bowl was fun too because they were not boring questions, but they were bunch of random fun questions.”
According to freshman Gaby Siquieros, attending the event was beneficial because she had an opportunity to meet and learn from CSF members from other schools.
“It was really fun going to the Quiz Bowl,” Siquieros said. “It was good to see other CSF members and see the different things they do. If we have a chance to go to the Quiz Bowl next year, I will definitely go again.”
For more information on CSF, read the April 13 article, Lee vies for Charles Seymour Memorial Award.
