Palm Desert High Takes First Place in 'WorldQuest' Competition

PHOTO: Palm Desert High School 1st place team members: Coach Patricia Lizza, Atharv Worlikar, Kaylie Chen , Jozanne Murphy, Michelle Dan, Coach Lisa Schwarzlose, Principal Bob Hicks; COURTESY: CSUSB Palm Desert

The following is a news release from CSUSB Palm Desert:

A team of students from Palm Desert High School emerged as winner from a field of 11 Coachella Valley high schools during the 10th annual Academic WorldQuest competition at Cal State San Bernardino’s Palm Desert Campus on Dec. 11.

Team members included Kaylie Chen, Michelle Dan, Jozanne Murphy and Atharv Worlikar, as well as team coaches Patricia Lizza and Lisa Schwarzlose. La Quinta High School and Palm Springs High School captured second and third place, respectively. Scholarships were awarded to each student in the top three teams: 1st place $300, 2nd place $200 and 3rd place $100.

The Palm Desert High School team will move on to complete against other high school teams throughout the country in the National Academic WorldQuest Competition to be held at Georgetown University in April 2015.

Sponsored by World Affairs Council of the Desert, Academic WorldQuest is a team game which challenges the competitors’ knowledge of world affairs. The topics this year included Food and Water; Human Trafficking; Russia/Eurasia; Youth, Jobs and Unemployment; and Current Events. The master of ceremonies was Eric Newman, a marketing professor in the College of Business and Public Administration at Cal State San Bernardino’s Palm Desert Campus.

This year’s competing high schools also included Cathedral City, Coachella Valley, Desert Mirage, Indio, Palm Valley, Rancho Mirage, Shadow Hills and West Shores. Chairman and former president of World Affairs Council of the Desert, Ward Fredericks, and Riverside County 4th District Supervisor John J. Benoit presented each student with certificates of recognition.

Doris Wilson, associate dean at the CSUSB Palm Desert Campus, chaired the event, with assistance from Charles and Priscilla Porter, Tom Headrick, Rebecca Simpson, Guido Portante, Karen Speros, Gordon Kramer, Regina Garrison and 28 volunteers from the World Affairs Council of the Desert. Corporate sponsors included Desert Lexus, Renaissance Esmeralda Indian Wells Resort and Spa, Regional Access Project Foundation and Anderson Children’s Foundation.