The preliminary round of the 31st annual National Geographic GeoBee, a competition designed to inspire and reward students’ curiosity about the world, was held today, Monday, May 20. The top 10 finishers—from the field of 54 state and territory champions who took part in the preliminaries—will compete in the semifinal round to be held at the National Geographic Society in Washington, D.C., tomorrow, Tuesday, May 21. The top three students will advance to the final round on Wednesday, May 22.
The GeoBee National Champion will receive a $25,000 college scholarship, a lifetime membership in the National Geographic Society and a Lindblad expedition to the Galápagos Islands aboard the National Geographic Endeavour ll. The second- and third-place winners will receive a $10,000 and $5,000 college scholarship, respectively. The top 10–scoring students will each receive $1,000 in cash.
For the first time this year, the GeoBee National Championship will take place jointly with the national-level competition of the GeoChallenge, a new project-based team competition in which students develop solutions to real-world problems. Follow this joint event, called the 2019 Geo Championships, at NatGeoEd.org/Experiences.
The 10 National Geographic GeoBee semifinalists:
- California—Jishnu Nayak, 6th, Peter Hansen Elementary School, Mountain House, Calif.
- Florida—Kaylan Patel, 7th, Windermere Preparatory School, Windermere, Fla.
- Illinois—Omkar Gadewar, 7th, Madison Junior High School, Naperville, Ill.
- Maryland—Rishi Kumar, 8th, Ellicott Mills Middle School, Ellicott City, Md.
- Massachusetts—Atreya Mallanna, 6th, William Diamond Middle School, Lexington, Mass.
- Michigan—Aarush Tutiki, 5th, Wass Elementary School, Troy, Mich.
- New Mexico—Lakshay Avi Sood, 8th, Albuquerque Academy, Albuquerque, N. Mex.
- New York—Dylan Rem, 8th, Horace Mann Middle Division, Bronx, N.Y.
- North Carolina—Vaibhav Hariram, 6th, Mills Park Middle School, Cary, N.C.
- Texas—Nihar Janga, 8th, Canyon Ridge Middle School, Austin, Tex.
Several finalists are returning this year from previous years. Nihar Janga (Texas), Atreya Mallanna (Massachusetts), Kaylan Patel (Florida) and Lakshay Avi Sood (New Mexico) are returning from the 2018 GeoBee. Sood also competed in the GeoBee national competitions in 2015, 2016 and 2017. Rishi Kumar (Maryland) is a returning competitor from 2016.
2019 Geo Championships Semifinals
Hosted by Mo Rocca
Tuesday, May 21, 1 p.m. / National Geographic Society, 1145 17th Street NW, Washington, D.C
Competition occurs in Grosvenor Auditorium; doors open to the media at 12:30 p.m. and close at 1 p.m
2019 Geo Championships Finals
Hosted by Mo Rocca
Wednesday, May 22, 3:30 p.m. / National Geographic Society, 1145 17th Street NW, Washington, D.C
Competition occurs in Grosvenor Auditorium; doors open to the media at 2:30 p.m. and close at 3:30 p.m.
MEDIA NOTE: Press resources for the 2019 National Geographic GeoBee and GeoChallenge are available at bit.ly/NatGeoCompetitionsAssets. The Dropbox folder will be updated at 6 p.m. ET on Wednesday, May 22, with the names and photos of the 2019 National Geographic GeoBee National Champion and the second- and third-place winners. The 2019 National Geographic GeoChallenge winning team and second- and third-place teams will also be announced at that time.
Video assets of the announcement of the 10 GeoBee finalists and the winning moments from each competition will be made available to the media.
Please direct media questions and interview requests to Laura McHugh at lmchugh@ngs.org or (202) 807-5317.