Credit: Souderton Area School District
The board also recognized senior Destini Smith, the district’s top track athlete
The Souderton Area School Board Thursday, May 22 recognized the high school Academic Decathlon team for winning its fourth state championship.
The event was held at Pope John Paul II High School in Philadelphia on March 14 and 15. Souderton scored 43,820 out of 60,000 possible points, beating defending state champion Seneca Valley High School by 394 points.
This year’s competition included ten events — essay, speech, interview, math, music, literature, science, social science, art, and economics — with 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. The theme of the competition was “Our Changing Climate.”
After winning the state championship, Souderton advanced to the 2025 United States Academic Decathlon National Finals in early May, finishing 7th in Division 2 with 41,894 out of a possible 60,000 points and taking home 12 national medals, a new school record.
The team is coached by computer science teacher Phil Cerami, mathematics teacher Carolyn Scott, and French teacher Sally Cushmore. Cerami described the team as one of the district’s strongest, with four members making the Pennsylvania All-State team.
“We knew walking into this year that we had one of the most talented Souderton teams ever,” said Cerami, adding that the victory sends a message to “anybody here who has no faith in public education now.”
The team consists of seniors Giovanni Iervolino, Ahsan Rahman and Henry Dang in the Honors Division, Aaron Im, Trina Nguyen and Maddy Zhang in the Scholastic Division, and Nate Soucier, Gideon Pham and Jaden Nguyen in the Varsity Division.
“You’re amazing,” said board president Stephen Nelson. “You represent this school and district so well, and we really appreciate it.”
Athlete recognition
The board recognized senior Destini Smith, the district’s top track athlete. Smith currently holds the school record in all six jumping events, including indoor and outdoor long jump, triple jump and high jump. She also holds the 4×2 relay record and has won multiple district, state and national competitions.
A native of Orlando, Florida, Smith began her track journey in first grade. She was introduced to the high jump in ninth grade before branching out into all three jumping events at Souderton Area High School. She will be attending Kansas State University on a track and field scholarship.
“I will venture to bet that she will end up being in the Olympics someday,” said Superintendent Frank Gallagher. “She’s just amazing; a one-of-a-kind girl.”
Gallagher also announced that the district received a $11,900 donation from Giant Foods, which will clear all outstanding student lunch debt, and that the high school graduation will be held at the Grand View Stadium on June 9 at 6 p.m.
The next SASD school board meeting is on June 26 at 7 p.m. For more information, visit soudertonsd.org.
