By Jocelyn Tolpin’16

On January 7, 12 Middle School students competed in a consortium all about general knowledge. Last year the Newark Academy team got third place in a very close competition This year, the team was going for the gold.

Before the competition, varsity team captain Alex Chang ’17 told me, “I think the General Knowledge Consortium is a great way for students to stand out intellectually and to try new things. I am very excited and I have the best hopes for our team to do very well in this competition. My goal is to get in the top three, maybe even win!”

Alex was very excited for the consortium and to lead our team to victory. He was very confident that our team was extremely strong and we had a very good chance. Alex estimated maybe 40 people tried out for the team when only 12 were accepted. It was very competitive. Like I said, our team looked very strong this year.

The General Knowledge Consortium is where many schools compete to see which school’s students have the most general knowledge. Taking place at NA, the teams compete in threes against each other to see who can answer the most questions correctly. There are three rounds and then the final four schools send four representatives to compete on stage. The participants find it very fun.

Last year, I competed in the General Knowledge Consortium and I did again this year. It’s very nerve-wracking, but it is so worth it when you are holding that plaque for your team.

Zach Tipnis, a participant on NA’s JV team was very excited for his first General Knowledge Consortium. He is a new student at NA and is happy to take part. He told me before the consortium, “My goal for this consortium is to do my best and to try my hardest. I am nervous but still excited and I think that we do have a very strong team and we have a lot of potential. I anticipate a close victory because our team is so strong. I think it will be a lot of fun.”

Zach was really happy when he found out he qualified and was very excited to spend all day on January 7 answering questions on random topics.

It was a great day. We competed all over the school for the 1st place plaque. In a nerve-wracking tiebreaker, our Varsity team made the finals and our JV made it off of the other rounds. At the finals, the teams worked very hard and answered as many questions with the best answer we could. And we did great. For the second time in NA history, both the JV and the Varsity teams won first place overall! Go General Knowledge!