F-M students face off in annual geography contest

A group of Fayetteville-Manlius middle school students recently proved they know their way around the world.

Thirty F-M students tested their knowledge of cultural, physical and economic geography during the 2019 National Geographic GeoBee, which was held at Eagle Hill and Wellwood middle schools in January.

The GeoBee is an annual competition organized by the National Geographic Society, and is designed to inspire and reward students’ curiosity about the world. Students in grades 4 through 8 from 10,000 schools across the United States compete in this annual competition, which features school, state and national contest levels.

Thirteen Eagle Hill students participated in the competition and its top three finalists included:

  • Daniel Manta, grade 5
  • Scott Hills, grade 8
  • Emmeline Reinhardt, grade 5

Wellwood’s event had 17 participants, including its finalists:

  • Eli Kligerman, grade 7
  • Cooper Dereszynski, grade 8
  • Akshay Kolvapally, grade 5

In order to be qualify for the state-level GeoBee, school competition winners must take a written exam and receive a top 100 score within their state. State winners will travel to the national competition in Washington, D.C. in May.

Thanks to a favorable score on the qualifying exam, Daniel and EIi will represent F-M at the New York State GeoBee on March 29. The event is being held at the New York State Museum in Albany.

This year, the national GeoBee champion will receive a $25,000 college scholarship, $1,000 in cash, a lifetime membership in the National Geographic Society, and a trip to the Galapagos Islands. Second- and third-place winners will each receive a $10,000 and $5,000 college scholarship, respectively, and a $1,000 cash prize.

Eagle Hill GeoBee participants by grade level:

Fifth grade
Samuel Dupras
Daniel Manta

Sixth grade
Jeremy Albert

Richard Cai
Vincent Liu
Anthony Prince
Nick Prince

Seventh grade
Ernest Nagapetov

Emmeline Reinhardt
Christopher Shanguhyia

Eighth grade
Scott Hills

Noah Taeckens
Zachary Wiedeman

Wellwood GeoBee participants by grade level:

Fifth grade
Ashkay Kolvapally

Sixth grade
Caleb Reiter

Seventh grade
Yaswanth Devalla

Vincent Hunt
Jonah Jaffe
Eli Kligerman
Adam Taylor

Eighth grade
Gene Balian

Alex Daly
Meher Chahal
DJ Concannon
Cooper Dereszynski
Sam Duncanson
David George
Aiden Lee
Nadav Nesher
Rian Sherwin

This is an image of Eagle Hill students who participated in the GeoBee

Thirteen Eagle Hill Middle School students participated in the 2019 National Geographic GeoBee.

This is an image of the top three GeoBee students at Eagle Hill

Eagle Hill Middle School GeoBee’s top three finishers were (from left) Emmeline Reinhardt, third place; Daniel Manta, first place; and Scott Hills, second place. 

This is an image of Wellwood students who participated in the GeoBee

Seventeen Wellwood Middle School students participated in the 2019 National Geographic GeoBee.

This is an image of the top three Wellwood GeoBee students

Wellwood Middle School GeoBee’s top finishers were (from left) Cooper Dereszynski, second place; Eli Kligerman, first place; and Akshay Kolvapally, third place.