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Official Press Release ***
May 18, 2011
Connor Hayes, a junior at Seton-La Salle, was the National
Champion in the World Events category at the Academic Games
National Championship Tournament held recently in Orlando, FL.
Connor was accompanied to the National Championship Tournament
by fellow students, seniors Mike Brust and Jon Kotek,
and moderator Mr. Ben Schrader, a Social Studies teacher
at Seton-La Salle.
Making the national championship earned all the more amazing was
that this is the first year that Academic Games has been an
activity offered at Seton-La Salle. This was organized by Mr.
Schrader, who had competed in Academic Games when he was a
student, and Connor Hayes, who started competing in Academic
Games as a fifth grader at Mt. Lebanon Middle School.
During their trip, the students and Mr. Schrader had a chance to
visit some of the sites of Orlando, including a fun-filled day
spent at Universal Studio’s new Islands of Adventure featuring
the World of Harry Potter exhibit.
Academic Games Leagues of America (AGLOA) is a non-profit
organization dedicated to developing "Thinking Kids" of
character, excellence, and integrity. AGLOA provides a series of
Academic Games competitions throughout the nation culminating in
a National Championship Tournament in late April each year.
Players compete in four Divisions, according to their grade
levels: Elementary (4-6); Middle (7-8); Junior (9-10); and
Senior (11-12). Participants compete in one or more of six
different Academic Games events that use and develop higher
order thinking skills. These are: Equations, On-sets,
Linguistics, Presidents, Propaganda and World Events. Since
1966, over 20,000 students have attended the National
tournament; over 100,000 have competed in local Academic Games
matches.
CONGRATULATIONS,
CONNOR!
Connor Hayes and
Mr. Ben Schrader
