Ward Melville Science Bowl Team on the Path to Victory

Ashley Hong, Staff Writer

After placing first at the Regional High School Science Bowl competition, Ward Melville is now preparing to compete at the 2014 National Science Bowl. The National Science Bowl is an academic competition organized by the United States Department of Energy. This competition will be held from Thursday, April 24 to Monday, April 28 in Washington, D.C.

This year, Ward Melville’s Science Bowl team consists of three seniors, Eidan Jacob, Harrison Li, and Akilesh Tangella, as well as junior Jake Welde and sophomore Rajiv Moturu. In April, these five students will be competing against several other schools that have placed first at their own regional competitions. They will have to put their knowledge to the test against some of the smartest students in the nation within various science-related areas, such as biology, chemistry, earth science, physics, energy, and math, in order to succeed at this nationwide academic competition.

On the topic of how it feels to be given a chance to compete at Nationals, Rajiv Moturu said, “It’s pretty awesome.” He is looking forward to seeing all of the bright students who had studied and deliberated for long hours over these vast topics to get to the national competition. Likewise, Harrison Li was extremely happy that Ward Melville received another chance to compete.

This year, many high schools in our region registered to compete at the Regional Science Bowl, the first and only competition before Nationals. Unfortunately, Ward Melville had been one of the later schools to register. They were listed as an alternate team, and would have only been able to compete if another school dropped out or failed to make the competition. The five student competitors found out on the day of the competition that they would be eligible to compete at Regionals.

Ward Melville emerged victorious from the competition after they competed against 20 teams from across the region. Before the start of the competition, Akilesh Tangella felt “happy to be able to participate, but still tense” for he had really wanted his team to place first. As Harrison Li reflected on the unanticipated events of this memorable day, he said, “the whole team was ecstatic and we all channeled our energy into the competition, which helped us to win.”