LAHAINA - A question about the number of American presidents besides Barack Obama who have won the Nobel Peace Prize broke a tie between Lahainaluna High School and Punahou School in the WorldQuest Competition held earlier this month.
Punahou's four-person team got it right and Lahainaluna's didn't, ending an epic two-stage, sudden-death face-off between the students from Obama's alma mater and those from the oldest school west of the Rockies.
Lahainaluna's team of Yvette Celiz, Catherine Whattam, Diego Torres and Ciara Allen finished second in the Pacific Asian Affairs Council's Chevron Academic WorldQuest Competition, held Nov. 14 across the state.
A total of 65 teams from 26 schools - including Maui County high schools Lahainaluna, Maui, Molokai and Lanai - competed in the test of students' knowledge in world geography, geopolitics and history.
The main competition was held at the University of Hawaii at Manoa, with satellite sites on Maui, Kauai and the Big Island. The contest was held simultaneously on all islands, connected via teleconferencing.
A total of eight teams from Maui High and Lahainaluna gathered at Maui High School, while Lanai and Molokai teams flew to Oahu.
There were 10 questions in six categories: current events, history of the United Nations, women in leadership, six-party talks, pandemics and history of South America. All questions were multiple choice and were projected on a screen for 60 seconds and read aloud.
Team members combined to answer the questions; there was no penalty for incorrect choices.
Teams from Punahou and Lahainaluna tied after the general round. Another round of 10 questions again ended in a tie with each team getting eight correct answers.
Punahou prevailed by answering the single question about American presidents and the Nobel Peace Prize correctly. There were three other Nobel Peace Prize-winning presidents besides Obama - Jimmy Carter, Teddy Roosevelt and Woodrow Wilson.
The goal of the competition, in its 10th year, is to foster international awareness of global issues and to nurture global citizenship in Hawaii youths.
"PAAC's programs often provide high school students with their first exposure to global affairs," said Natasha Chappel, program director. "Global literacy is becoming a prerequisite for success in today's world, and participating in PAAC is one of the best ways for students to develop an interest in all things international."
PAAC is a private, nonprofit organization that promotes increased understanding of world affairs, particularly Asia-Pacific issues, by sponsoring speaker forums and conferences, facilitating cross-cultural exchanges of international visitors and conducting global educational outreach programs at Hawaii high schools and community colleges.
Sponsors for the competition were Chevron, USA; Na Lei Aloha Foundation, and the Freeman Foundation.
On the Net:
- Pacific Asian Affairs Council: www.paachawaii.org.
