Blind Brook’s Abe Baker-Butler Named National Geographic Bee Semifinalist

Blind Brook’s Abe Baker-Butler was notified by the National Geographic Society that he is a semifinalist in this year’s National Geographic Bee. Abe is a fifth-grader at Bruno M. Ponterio Ridge Street School. As a semifinalist, Abe will compete in the 2013 New York National Geographic Bee to be held at the New York State Museum in Albany on April 5.

Prior to his selection as a semifinalist, Abe won the bee at his school, which was open to all fourth- and fifth-graders. Geography bees for students in grades 4-8 were held in schools throughout the state to determine each school’s winner. All school-level winners then took a qualifying test, which was submitted to the National Geographic Society. In each of the 50 states, as well as the District of Columbia, the Department of Defense Dependent Schools and the U.S. territories, the National Geographic Society invited the students with the top 100 scores to compete at the state level.

The state winner will receive $100, the “Complete National Geographic on DVD,” and a trip in May to Washington, D.C., where they will represent their state in the national finals at National Geographic Society headquarters. The first-place national winner will receive a $25,000 college scholarship and a lifetime membership in the National Geographic Society. The national winner will also travel, along with a parent or guardian, on an all-expenses-paid trip to the Galápagos Islands, where they will experience geography firsthand through up-close encounters with the wildlife and landscape of the Galápagos.

This is the 25^th anniversary of the National Geographic Bee, which is designed to spark student interest in and raise public awareness about geography.