Four students from Mounds View High School recently won some hardware for taking first place in the 2024 Academic World Quest, an annual statewide global knowledge competition hosted by Global Minnesota.
The event pitted 30 high school teams, comprised of four students each, answering questions about critical issues facing the country and the world.
"Everyone would answer the same question at the same time, you would have like a 45-second time limit, submit your answer and then it would go in the system," says 10th grader Alicia Liu. "And then it would show the correct answer up on the big screen."
And when it was all said and done...
"The most surprising thing is when we actually won, because we didn't think we were going to win the competition."
Why didn't John Liu think they would win?
"Every week after school we would meet for like an hour online, and we didn't think that would be enough," he adds.
The students answered questions about critical issues facing the country and the world.
"These topics are important to us because we need to educate ourselves on what's happening in our world. And we need to stay updated so that we can learn all perspectives and not just stay focused on one region of the world," says Mounds View 10th grader Josiah Chan.
With their victory, John, Alicia, Jayish, and Josiah received an all-expense paid trip to Washington D.C. for the National Competition in April.