Each year, millions of people visit Washington D.C., but Austin Hoelscher’s visit was one of a kind.
Austin Hoelscher, a student at JHS and ISD, is a member of an academic bowl team that recently traveled to Washington D.C. for a competition. Gallaudet University’s Academic Bowl, hosted in Washington D.C., is a competition among 80 teams. Gallaudet’s official website describes the competition: “The tournament hosts 320 deaf and hard of hearing high school students from around the U.S. and, for the first time ever, Canada, to compete in a Jeopardy-style quiz tournament.”
The website goes on to say that, “The competition consists of a question and answer game of general knowledge and quick recall. Questions are drawn from the following categories: history and government; language and literature; Science and technology; geography; mathematics; the arts; deaf studies; current events; and pop culture, leisure, and sports.”
Hoelscher says that one of the team’s coaches encouraged him to join the team. When he did, he had to take a special test to see if he would qualify for the Gallaudet tournament. He scored in the top 5, and earned the opportunity to go to Washington D.C. to compete.
In the national competition, Hoelscher’s team placed an impressive 27th out of 80 teams.
Hoelscher plans to continue his involvement with the team: “It’s always fun to meet new people, especially from places like Hawaii, Canada, California… anywhere really,” Hoelscher said.
Hoelscher would recommend the team to others. “It’s a good experience,” he said.
The team’s coaches are Lori Niemann and Raquel Humphrey, and the student competitors are Austin Hoelscher, Rajonne Townsell, Ben Dearing, and Victoria Murrell.