On February 17th, at Antelope Valley College our two teams of Rio Norte earned 6th and 2nd place in the regional competition with team 2 moving on to the state competition which is held on April 6th at the California Institute of Technology. This is a very challenging accomplishment that involves a lot of hard work. To first recognize why this is such an enormous achievement, let’s dig deeper into what the Science Olympiad competition really is and what its competitors do there.
Science Olympiad is a competition that was founded in 1984 where teams of at most 15 compete in 23 different events focused on science. This means each team member has to at least take around 1-2 events. Throughout the competition, the team members compete in 23 events which consist of topics such as Earth Science, Biology, Chemistry, Physics, and Engineering. The regionals at Antelope Valley had 17 teams all competing against each other, however 4 teams weren’t actively competing.
Through all this, the teams earned 6th and 2nd place at the regional competition with team 2 moving on to state with Aakash Ahuja Jr. team 2’s captain, even stating “It had always been my dream to get to state with my team and we made it.” Although this may be a massive achievement, Aakash has expressed his thoughts on potential improvement: “I feel like our team could do better.” Aakash also understands that the team could improve by studying harder. He explained from his experience that state would be nearly 10 times more difficult than regional. Team 2 would have to give it their best if they even wanted the slightest chance at getting to nationals.
The achievements that Rio Norte had obtained, are proof of the hard work, dedication, time, and effort they had put into being one of the best. The collective hard work invested by each member of these teams has earned them a chance to compete in the upcoming State competition. Although they may have some rough edges, it’s with pride we honor those whose commitment to excellence has allowed them to be one of the best.