Nativity School Scores Big in Academic Decathlon

in Menlo Park is fast showing the Bay Area that they have some of the brightest minds around.

Earlier this month, a team of sixth- through eighth-grade students from the school competed in the San Francisco Archdioces' Academic Decathlon, a rigorous intellectual competition that had them pitted against 15 other schools from Marin down to Menlo Park.

Barely breaking a sweat, Nativity School walked away with several honors, including third place overall, and second place in the competition's toughest section, known as the "SuperQuiz."

"We did very well. We walked away with many medals and trophies," said Nativity School's principal, Carol Trelut, proudly. "It's a wonderful, wonderful contest and it's quite aggressive in the academic world. So it's very exciting to win."

The decathlon consists of several different sections. 

In the first portion, teams have to answer logic questions as a team.

The second is the SuperQuiz.

"The SuperQuiz entails the following - academics, science, social studies, fine arts, literature and religion," Trelut explained. "There are 10 questions from each area, and the students work as a team to answer the questions."

The third and last portion of the contest is known as the "individual arena." In this, each student focuses on a particular area of interest such as science, fine arts, religion, social studies, or current events, and they take an individual written test.

Trelut said, sometimes the school's advisors will assign a student a particular subject of focus for the individual arena, or students can also ask to study a subject they have an interest in.

"Then, at the end, judges add up the points from all the portions of the competition, and the schools with the highest scores in each area take home the trophies."

Trelut said, the top winner overall gets to travel down to Los Angeles for the statewide decathlon.

"It's such a huge event, with so many schools, that they take over the whole Staples Center," she described.

Brianna Roque, an eighth-grade student who served as this year's team captain for Nativity School, said participating in the event is very rewarding.

"I like the whole sense of competition. Competition is a big motivator for me," she said. "Plus, I always wanted to be a part of the academic team, because it's a real honor at my school."

For the individual arena portion, Brianna studied English grammar.

"There's a lot of studying before the competition, such as learning all the components of a sentence," she said. "Because it's separate from school, I actually end up learning a lot more about a subject than I might usually. And, I even end up reviewing things I've learned before."

Brianna said, working with all the other students is another of her favorite aspects of the experience.

"There's a lot of team bonding with between all the different grades, so you really get to know all the people on your team," she said. "All the students on the team this year were really great."

Overall, Brianna said it's something she would definitely want to do again.

"It's one of the best experiences I've ever had," she said.