Unlike the recent middle school spelling bee, the first Benjamin Middle School Geography Bee sponsored by National Geographic was not held in a large auditorium with hundreds watching, but rather in a nearly empty classroom after school with six contestants and two judges.

The Benjamin Middle School hosted its first annual geography bee for students in sixth, seventh, and eighth grade. Before the official bee, the contestants – consisting of any student who wanted to participate in the bee – had to go through several rounds of testing. The qualifying rounds were based on points according to Mr. Hagy, the head of the Middle School. Once a student made it through the qualifying rounds, he or she attended the school geography bee on Tuesday, February 2 at 3:30 p.m. in Mr. Marshall Mullnix’s classroom. The six finalists were eighth graders Christian Baldari, Alexandra Denholtz, and Jakob Mendelsohn, seventh grader Max Paksima, and sixth graders Evan Liberman and Matthew Postman. Sixth-grade social studies teacher Mrs. Pamela Quigley kept score of the points while Mr. Hagy asked the questions.

Once Mendelsohn and Paksima were the last two participants remaining, they entered the championship round which encompassed a new set of questions. When asked, “What city in British Columbia hosted the 2016 FIFA Women’s World Cup?”, Mendelsohn correctly answered “Vancouver.” He was then the inaugural middle school geography bee champion.

“I felt confident [going into the bee] because I felt well prepared with the questioning style,” remarked Mendelsohn. “I choose to do the geography bee because I am very enthusiastic about geography and I am very good at it.”

Hagy pointed out the importance of holding the bee, noting that it aligns with one of the School’s missions in helping create globally competent students. “I think knowledge of people in other countries, knowledge of other places, that the world is larger than North Palm Beach, Florida is probably more important now than ever based on the world that [Benjamin students] will be graduating into upon leaving high school and college,” he said.

He also explained why the bee was held in a classroom after school.“This being the first geography bee we’ve held, I wanted the students to be comfortable and the students themselves, because there were only five, felt better about not having it in front of the whole School. Next year, though, we’ll be ready to bring it to the stage.”

So for the students who would like to participate next year, there will definitely be a bee, and that one will take its rightful place on the stage in the BPAC, right where it “bee”longs.