Congratulations to our Esperanza Academic Decathlon team who earned 2nd place in the team super quiz and 3rd place overall team in division 2. Esperanza finished 9th out of 35 schools in Orange County.

A huge congratulations to senior Katie Flanagan, who won 6 medals: 1st interview, 2nd economics, 3rd math, 4th art, 4th speech, and 5th literature. Overall Kaite felt, “really good about winning, the team worked really hard, and we studied a lot.” Katie was disappointed she didn’t win last year, but since she “studied more this year it made the win sweeter.”

Each year the academic decathlon has a theme; this year, “The theme was the American Revolution and the team competes in 10 subjects that are around the theme.” Kaitie’s, “favorite subjects are economics, speech, and interview. There are 3 competition days, the first day was an essay segment, then the second day was a speech and interview day, the speeches are in front of judges and then volunteers interviewed us. And then on the last day, we were tested in the other 7 subjects.”

Katie elaborates, “There still is the second-semester decathlon. Academic decathlon may seem intimidating by the name and a lot of people think you have to be smart, but anyone can join to learn, it is open to anyone.” She points out that the team works, “hard but we also have a lot of fun with Mrs. Nguyen-Valdez, she is amazing and buys us a lot of food.”

“We become a big family and it is a good experience especially if you want to be backed up by a team.”

The results from our varsity academic decathlon competition are below. The academic decathlon team earned a total of 18 individual medals competing in division one. Here are the students on the team:

1. Shivali Sharma
2. Emi Furuichi
3. Alex Tumakay
4. Jack Wachter
5. Shelly Li
6. Hayley Park (1 medal: 5th literature)
7. Jayden Maldonado-Rojas (1 medal: 3rd math)
8. Tyler Furuichi (1 medal: 3rd science)
9. Eric Alfaro (2 medals: 5th economics, 4th math)
10. Chessa Park (2 medals: 4th math, 3rd speech)
11. Matthew Hoang (4 medals: 2nd art, 2nd literature, 4th music, 4th social science)
12. Justine Koo (5 medals: 1st music, 2nd math, 2nd speech, 4th literature, 5th economics)
13. Emma Beelner (5 medals: 5th interview, 5th social science, 5th music, 5th literature, 3rd art)
14. Ella Reynoza (6 medals: 1st art, 2nd math, 4th economics, 4th music, 5th science, 5th social science)
15. Katie Flanagan (6 medals: 1st interview, 2nd economics, 3rd math, 4th art, 4th speech, 5th literature)

The students earned a total of 33 individual medals. The team earned 2nd place in the team super quiz event (where students answer timed questions in front of an audience) and 3rd place team in division two. Esperanza placed 9th overall in Orange County (out of 35 schools).  

The awards are not over yet, next Tuesday 2/21/23 our 9th and 10th-grade students will have a virtual awards ceremony (JV competition). 

Shivali Sharma, Emi Furuichi, Alex Tumakay, Jack Wachter, Shelly Li, Hayley Park, Jayden Maldonado-Rojas, Tyler Furuichi, Eric Alfaro, Chessa Park, Matthew Hoang, Justine Koo, Emma Beelner, Ella Reynoza, and Katie Flanagan earned a total of 33 medals across ten different events. Congratulations to Esperanza’s decathletes!