Palm Desert Students Reign Supreme At WorldQuest Competition

PALM DESERT, CA — For the second year in a row, a team of students from Palm Desert High School emerged as winners from a field of 12 Coachella Valley high schools during the 13th annual Charles and Priscilla Porter Academic WorldQuest competition at Cal State San Bernardino’s Palm Desert Campus on Dec. 6.

Team members included Matthew Chang, Patricia Dan, Danielle Hjerpe and Joshua Phillips, as well as team coaches Patricia Lizza and Lisa Schwarzlose. La Quinta High School captured second place and Palm Valley School beat out West Shores High School for third place. Scholarships were awarded to each student in the top three teams: first place, $300; second place, $200; and third place, $100.

The most improved award went to Desert Mirage High School whose team members won $75 each.

The Palm Desert High School team scored 44 out of 50, just shy of its 46 out of 50 winning score from last year, which was the highest score in the history of this local competition. The team will move on to compete against other high school teams throughout the country in the National Academic WorldQuest Competition to be held in Washington, D.C., in April 2018.

Sponsored by World Affairs Council of the Desert, the Charles and Priscilla Porter Academic WorldQuest is a team game that challenges the competitors’ knowledge of world affairs. The topics this year included NAFTA, ASEAN at 50, India’s Bid for Global Leadership and Great Decisions. Bianca Rae, morning anchor at KESQ News Channel 3, served as master of ceremony.

This year’s competing high schools also included Coachella Valley, Desert Hot Springs, Desert Mirage, Indio, Palm Springs, Rancho Mirage, Shadow Hills and Xavier College Prep. President of World Affairs Council of the Desert, John Welty, presented each team with certificates of recognition from the office Congressman Raul Ruiz.

The competition began with a welcome from Riverside County 4th District Supervisor V. Manuel Perez.

Doris Wilson, associate dean at CSUSB Palm Desert Campus, chaired the event, with assistance from Charles and Priscilla Porter, Tom Headrick, Karen Speros, Gordon Kramer, Yul Roe, Regina Garrison and 28 volunteers.

Event sponsors included Palm Springs Life and Charles and Priscilla Porter as platinum sponsors; Anderson Children’s Foundation, County of Riverside and CSUSB Palm Desert Campus as gold ambassador sponsors; and Thunderbird Country Club, Rabobank, Merrill Lynch, UBS Financial Services, Inc. and College of the Desert as silver ambassador sponsors.

Located in beautiful Palm Desert, the CSUSB Palm Desert Campus offers bachelor’s and master’s degrees, a doctorate in educational leadership, and teacher credentials and certificates. With more than 1,400 students, it is the Coachella Valley’s four-year public university and plays a vital role in educating and training the region’s growing population.

For more information about the CSUSB Palm Desert Campus, contact Mike Singer in the campus’ Office of Public Affairs at msinger@csusb.edu or (760) 341-2883, ext. 78107 or visit the campus website at www.pdc.csusb.edu.

— TEXT AND PHOTO SUBMITTED FOR PUBLICATION BY: CSUSB Palm Desert Campus