Freshman Nick Harvey is pursuing his passion in geography, going on to win awards on a national level. 

In April, Harvey competed in the National History Bee and Bowl in Arlington, Va., reaching the semifinals in the National Geography Bee portion of the competition. 

This placed Harvey among the top 16 competitors of 100 students in the junior varsity division, which consisted of freshmen and sophomores. A varsity division of the geography bee consisting of seniors and juniors also had 100 contestants

The bee Harvey competed in consisted of a paragraph being read describing the answer that participants were supposed to find. Points were awarded based on where the paragraph was stopped before the student provided an answer

Although this was Harvey’s first year competing in the National Geography Bee, he has had some prior experience with history competitions in the past.

“In middle school, I went to the state’s National Geographic bee [which is only for middle school],” Harvey said.

He discovered the national bee by receiving a questionable piece of mail a few years ago that he chose to ignore. It wasn’t until years later that he decided to give it a shot and sign up for the regional bee in Saratoga, where he took a paper test in both national geography and national history.

He placed high enough in the geography division to advance to compete at the national level

Harvey’s passion for history and geography started from a young age, and he mainly credits the childhood books he read for inspiring him to become so invested in this topic

“When I was little, those Magic Tree House books were my favorite so I read them all the time and I developed my love of history,” Harvey said. “My love of geography kind of sprung up from that.”

Harvey definitely plans to compete in the geography bee next year and is excited to possibly place higher. He is also excited about the prospects of a creating a Quiz Bowl Club.

“I think it’s possible that we can bring competing in this competition into the [national bee],” he said

Harvey displays his love for geography in his world geography class, taught by Hannah Cheng 

“Nick is super inquisitive and basically a model student because he loves learning,” Cheng said. “He is very enthusiastic about everything we talk about and he is quite the debater.” 

She also noted that Harvey often has very strong arguments and is quite confident in what he says and does 

“He does like to give me updates here and there about the competitions he does,” Cheng said in regards to his placement at the national bee in April.