17th Annual Academic WorldQuest Competition

December 02, 2017

242 students from 26 schools competed in the 2017 Academic WorldQuest Competition, which tested participants in six categories: Current Events, Combating Climate Change, India’s Bid for Global Leadership, America’s Diplomats, NAFTA, and the Peacebuilding Toolkit. The competition was held simultaneously on O‘ahu, Maui, Moloka‘i, and Hawai‘i Island. Mahalo to Nick Yee of Hawaii Public Radio for emceeing, and PAAC Board Members, Ray Tsuchiyama and Jill Takasaki Canfield for judging the competition. See more competition pictures in our Gallery.

Congratulations to the winning team (pictured above) from Punahou School: Jessica Sawai, Emily Wu, Tamara Sato, and Kaitlyn Kong. They will represent Hawai‘i in the National Competition in Washington, D.C. in April. The competition and grand prize is generously sponsored by the Mamoru and Aiko Takitani Foundation.

2017 Winning Teams
First Place- Punahou School: Jessica Sawai, Emily Wu, Tamara Sato, and Kaitlyn Kong

Second Place- Kealakehe High: Juliana Hennig, Olivia Loney, Hope Kudo, Brianna Arakawa

Third Place- 'Iolani School: Yoo Ra Sung, Jake Steiner, Sean Callahan, Matthew Sohn

We also recognized the top teams from Maui County, Hawaii County, and Honolulu County, that did not place in the top three. 

Hawaii County- Waiakea High: Kevin Li, Haruna Tomono, Gaaya Godbole, Deylen Nekoba

Maui County-Maui High: One Jae Lee, Axl Daguio, Kevin Rodriguez, Lino Yoshikawa

Honolulu County- Farrington High: Dominic Arzadon, RJ Villa, Beigie Lam, Deven Estomago