Schools

MAMS Student Was Finalist at the National GeoBee State Competition

More than 100 middle schoolers competed in the state Geo Bee competition on Friday.

Brian Slobotsky of Cliffwood was a finalist last week at the National Geographic Bee. The day began with 100 semi-finalists culled from school geography bees from all over the state, who qualified for the state bee after they earned high scores on a written exam.

Ultimately the win went to Siddharth Kurella, an 8th grader at Crossroads North Middle School in Monmouth Junction, won the NJ National Geographic Bee held at Rowan University Friday. He will now go on to the National Competition in Washington DC. May 22-24, where he has a chance to win the grand prize of a $25,000 scholarship and trip to the Galapagos Islands.

In second place was Kevin Pang, Stewartsville Middle School, Stewartsville, and third place Tarun Maddali, Newark Academy, Livingston. Both are 8th graders. 

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Monmouth County was well-represented. In addition to Slobotsky, who represented the Matwan Aberdeen Middle School, other Monmouth County kids include Chris De Carolis of Cedar Drive Middle School in Colts Neck, Anthony T. Moore of Memorial Middle School in Freehold, Andy J. Gao of Barkalow Middle School in Freehold, Daniel Draganoff of Beers Street School in Hazlet, Aishwarya Kalyanaraman of William R. Satz School in Holmdel, Dina M. Brown of Howell Middle School South in Howell, Joseph Mignella of Manalapan-Englishtown Middle School in Manalapan, Tarung S. Bhimnathwala of Marlboro Middle School lin Marlboro, Owen Zhang of Marlboro Middle School in Morganville, and Douglas R. Simons of Forrestdale Middle School in Rumson.

After the first eight rounds and a tie-breaker competition, the ten finalists included Brian Slobotsky of Cliffwood, representing Matawan-Aberdeen Middle School and Tarung S. Bhimnathwala of Marlboro, representing Marlboro Middle School.

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The 2012 National Geographic Bee is open to students in grades 4-8 who register in October. It is sponsored by Google Inc and Plum Creek.


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