Natasha Dardashti social media editor
The first-year Science Olympiad team attended the state competition at Caltech and placed last on April 2.
Though they did not place at the state competition, the Science Olympiad placed fifth out of 30 teams overall in the Antelope Valley regional competition. Co-captain Sophia Goldberg believes that the reason they qualified for state was because of pure dedication and teamwork.
“I think we made it to State because we are a very dedicated team, and the people on the team really do care about Science Olympiad and want to do well,” Goldberg said. “[No one] joined just to say that they joined. Because so many people are dedicated to the team, we went far.”
The competition was studded with nationally placing teams such as Troy High School. Co-captain Jamie Kim states that though competing alongside these teams was intimidating, it was also an honor.
“We felt privileged to be in the same competition pool as people who have been national champions, but at the same time it was intimidating,” Kim said. “This is our first year qualifying for state, and obviously we have a lot left to learn.”
Kim also believes that the level of difficulty in the state events was the same as the level at the regional events, but the level of competitiveness was higher.
“It was the exact same competition, but we were in a much more selective group of people,” Kim said.
Sophomore Rebecca Regwan says that by simply attending the event, she now has a better understanding of the high status of competition that is present at the state level.
“I learned what the level of understanding is needed for [a state competition] compared to the level in regionals. I didn’t really know how much harder it would be and now I have a better idea of what must be done next year to improve our scores,” Regwan said.
Kim agrees with Regwan in that attending the state competition was a learning experience.
“[Being with teams that were so elite] taught us that we need to be more organized and structural, which just comes with time as we build our team. As we walked around, it was nice to see the things that they were doing,” Kim said.
In wake of their recent loss, Goldberg has not lost hope. In fact, she simply has higher hopes for the upcoming competition.
“It felt really good that we actually made it to state,” Goldberg said. “Even though we didn’t do as well as I had hoped, we made it much farther in our first year than I expected.”