The Poplar Bluff High School Academic Team has in recent weeks received $1,000 in grants, which will be used for requisite equipment and fees to send more students to Quiz Bowl camp.
The Academic Assistance Group approved a $750 mini-grant to go toward registration and travel to the 2016 ACE Quiz Bowl. Matt’s Buzzers, an international program, awarded an additional $250 so the Academic Team can purchase a replacement buzzer system.
“We need more funds because the growth in number of our teams has caused me to try to start entering more than one team at tournaments when the host schools allow it, resulting in twice the entry fee expenses,” explained science teacher Gail Karlish, the team sponsor. “A second reason is that the expenses of Scholar Bowl camp, which has proved very beneficial to our team during the last several years, is quite burdensome and prohibits many of our players from being able to attend.”
The AAG is a booster club for academic departments and functions at the high school, financing instructional needs that may not have been included in applicable budgets, along with other educational opportunities that may have arisen during the school year.
Matt’s Buzzers is a memorial grant started by a Midwest couple in the name of their late son, Matthew Cvijanovich, who was on his way to becoming a top competitor in Quiz Bowl nation-wide as a graduate student at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
“We love the idea of keeping Matt’s memory alive through an organization that brought him so much enjoyment and challenge,” his mother Sheryl stated. “While he truly loved the competition, for Matt, it was all about the knowledge.”
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Cutline: Two varsity Academic Teams took first and fourth place, respectively, on Saturday, Feb. 20, in Jackson. Students Trenton Nepean and Jackson Rideout earned individual medals. Pictured are: (Back row from left) Humza Siddiqui, Hamiz Mirza, Trenton Nepean, Christian Cmehil-Warn and Hunter Aud; (front row, left to right) Chang Chi, Jackson Rideout and Diego Rivetti.