Clark Magnet Wins Scholastic Bowl Competition

Clark Magnet High School came out on top in the 21st annual High School Scholastic Bowl on Monday night.

Four esteemed schools from the Glendale Unified School District gathered for the 21st annual bowl, during which hundred of peers and parents cheered inside the Glendale High School auditorium at 7 p.m.  

, , Herbert Hoover High School and Glendale High School took the stage. All the schools performed admirably, but it was Clark Magnet who came out the winner.

After an address from Dr. Richard Sheehan, superintendent of GUSD, the evening was broken into two portions; first, the scores from individual essays (written by competitors prior to the competition) were revealed. Individual essays were written in response to this prompt:

The events presently unfolding in the Middle East and Northern Africa have presented a number of challenges for American's foreign policy. In light of the present turmoil and political upheaval, what should the United States' official position be, keeping in mind its short-term objectives as well as long-range goals?

Clark Magnet dominated the essay portion of the scoring (which averaged out the students' individual scores). The competition then moved on to the live competition, hosted by KNBC News esteemed weatherman Fritz Coleman.

Students had to answer questions in a myriad of fields, first as a team and then individually in a lightning buzzer round. Questions covered all topics imaginable.

Robert Hale Anderserson, a senior at Crescenta Valley, reported that he and his teammates had only practiced for one month prior to the competition. He didn't mind, however, that his school placed third. He commented that participating made him "feel smart."

For Andersen, the buzzer round was the highlight of the evening, where he and other competitors vied to answer questions like, "What was the musical Rent based on?" (La Boheme). Contestants also had to identify music from the '30s and classic European paintings, as well as solve complex math problems, recount historical facts and much more.

The idea, as Clark Magnet sophomore Guy Burstein put it, is to be a "renaissance" student, able to speak on a multiple areas of academia.

Clark Magnet, this year's winners, came in second place the previous year. Burstein explained that this brush with victory left them hungering for the real thing this year.

"We tried way harder," he said, "because we were so close [last year]. It's a lot of hard work. We have to meet every lunch, write practice essays, and study."

All Clark Magnets' work paid off to the tune of $500 scholarships for each of the five members on the team (Burstein, John Azizian, Saro Meguerdijian, Sayonika Mohanta, and Jacob Minasian).

Second place went to Herbert Hoover's team, who each received $150. Crescenta Valley came in third and received $100 each, followed by Glendale, whose team received $75 each.