Un-bee-lievable!!

Ben Geyer - Washington DC Geographic Bee Champion 2008

The British School of Washington is very proud that Ben Geyer retained his DC championship crown at the state-level Geographic Bee at the Charles Sumner School and Museum on Friday 4th April 2008. It is believed that this is the first time ever that the same student has won in four successive years. This is the twentieth year of the Bee and Ben has set a new record! It also confirms how young he was when he first won, being the second youngest of the 55 contestants back in 2005. The majority of the contestants are usually in the eighth grade (Year 9), which means that Ben this year will be pitted against many who are his own age. 

In the state-level final Ben was up against some formidable opponents for the final round. Ben, along with four others, had a perfect score of eight in the preliminary round. The other three that made up the eight finalists had all scored seven, which meant that a tie-breaker round was not required.

Questions in the final round were very challenging, but fate brought Ben a picture round question on London along with a question on Liverpool as home of the Beatles. The championship competition consisted of three questions which required written answers by the two final opponents. Both contestants got all three answers correct, and in the tie-breaker Ben alone knew the answer about the tourist industry in Vietnam. 

Ben received his fourth National Geographic Globe and a cash prize for his achievement, and will now go forward to the national finals on May 20 and 21st and his final opportunity to be crowned National Geographic Bee champion. First prize in the national competition is a $25,000 college scholarship and lifetime membership in the National Geographic Society. Having made it to the top ten last year Ben will surely be a firm favourite to do well again this year.

Mr Kelvin Williams, Deputy-Head of the Secondary School, has stated that he is once again looking forward to accompanying Ben to the competition, and realizes that as well as enjoying the high-level competition he will get the opportunity to meet and share ideas with geographers and teachers from every state and other places worldwide. 

As a school community we wish him well in his preparations for the competition, and congratulate him on his DC win.