Credit: Souderton Area School District
It is the seventh win in eight years.
The Souderton Area High School Academic Decathlon Team won its seventh regional title in eight years.
On February 1, students from across eastern Pennsylvania competed in the 41st annual Eastern Pennsylvania Academic Decathlon, held at Methacton High School. By virtue of Souderton’s regional title, they advance to the PA State Championships.
Students competed in 10 events – essay, speech, interview, math, music, literature, science, social science, art, and economics, in nine-member teams composed of three honors or “A” students, three scholastic or “B” students, and three varsity or “C” students, forcing teams to work together across different ability levels to learn the same content. Students could also participate in an “Alternate” division if they did not participate as a member of one of the three-student divisions listed above.
The subjects this year were centered on a theme – Our Changing Climate. 6 of the 9 members of the Eastern PA All-Star Regional Team were Souderton students, with Senior Ahsan Rahman being awarded the individual regional champion title for the highest score in the entire competition.
Souderton scored 41,648 out of 60,000 possible points, beating 2nd place Methacton High School by 7,510 points. Souderton has been competing in the Academic Decathlon since 2013 and has won 7 regional titles and 3 state titles in that time.
Members of the champion Souderton team are Ahsan Rahman, Giovanni Iervolino, and Henry Dang in the Honors Division, Aaron Im, Trina Nguyen, and Maddy Zhang in the Scholastic Division, Nate Soucier, Gideon Pham, and Jaden Nguyen in the Varsity Division, and Alex Steele, Jason Nguyen, Sofia Huang, Ryan Markus, Aayan Tahmid, Logan Sauerwald, and Caroline Stout as Alternates.
The team is coached by Souderton Area High School Computer Science teacher Phil Cerami, French Language teacher Sally Cushmore, and Math teacher Carolyn Scott.
The Pennsylvania Academic Decathlon State Championship will be hosted at Pope John Paul II High School on March 14th and 15th. The winner of the state championship will advance to the USAD National Finals in Des Moines, IA in late April.
