Grand Ledge High School’s very own Varsity Quiz Bowl team will be competing at the NAQT (National Academic Quiz Tournaments) National Championship this coming May!

The team consists of Zack Zulewski, Jason Thieu, Kiera Haver, Rose House, and Maddy Gooley. They each have their own area of specialties that benefit the team while competing. 

Zack specializes in social studies and sports, Jason in science and math, Kiera in politics, pop culture, and Earth sciences, Maddy in pop culture, literature, and fine arts, and Rose in mythology and history.    

The team has worked hard for this achievement and all members are super pumped about. 

“I think it’s an amazing step for the quiz bowl program, and for our school competing on this level is nothing,” Zack Zulewski, Quiz Bowl team captain said. “We’ve never done anything like this before, and I’m really honored to be one of the first people from Grand Ledge to do this.”

 In 2017 the Quiz Bowl team qualified for nationals but chose not to go because they were all seniors and did not want to miss their last few days of school. 

This exciting new adventure takes a lot of planning and organizing. However, thorough planning is not new to the team. This past March, the team hosted and planned one of the largest in person tournaments of this year. 

“I feel like the tournament was definitely a learning experience.  Since of course, we made mistakes, but I feel like this is a really new opportunity for what we can do as a team, like what we can organize.” Jason Thieu said. 

The Capital City Quizbowl Clash raised about $1000 for the Quizbowl team, just over the amount they needed to pay to register for the national championship tournament. 

Fundraising has been the team’s top priority within the past month. The team held a bake sale at the high school March 17 and 18 and raised over $450. 

The team also started a GoFundMe, asking for any help from the community, which raised over $2000. There was a great amount of surprise to the generosity.

“I think it shows that the community really does recognize what we’re doing is remarkable and I think it further shows the success that this program is being able to achieve.” Kiera Haver said. 

And all of their other fundraising efforts have helped to get their name out into the community as well. 

“I think [the tournament] did a lot to kind of show the legitimacy of Grand Ledge as a program.” Said Zack Zulewski 

The Varsity Quizbowl team has raised a lot of money for their trip, but they are always gracious for more! Make sure to check out their instagram (@glhsquizbowl) for any other fundraising events.