When Soft Power Is "Acc Hella Interesting": 147 Hawaiʻi Students Compete in the 2026 Academic WorldQuest
From O'ahu to Hawai'i Island to Maui, students discovered that the world's most pressing issues might just be more fascinating than they expected.
Somewhere in the middle of reading a study article on soft power in international relations, something shifted for one student. They described the moment the way only a teenager can — "yo this is acc hella interesting" — and then went on to explain, with real precision, why watching how countries deploy movies, cultural exchanges, and K-pop actually changes how you read the world. That kind of spark — unscripted, specific, and entirely their own — is what Academic WorldQuest is built for.
The Competition
On March 7, 2026, 147 students from 19 schools across O'ahu, Hawai'i Island, and Maui gathered at the Imin Conference Center on the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa campus for PAAC's 2026 Hawaiʻi Regional Academic WorldQuest competition. Teams of four arrived PAACports in hand, filed into Keoni Auditorium to face 60 multiple-choice questions across six categories: Pop Culture & Soft Power in International Relations, the FIFA World Cup, Migration & Immigration, the Belt & Road Initiative, Tariffs & Trade, and Coffee & Chocolate: A Global Perspective. For three rounds of competition — broken up by intermissions, snacks, and the kind of quiet intensity that descends when four people are whispering strategy over a clipboard — students worked through questions that don't typically appear on a high school syllabus.
The Results: A Historic Sweep
When the scores were tallied and the challenge round was settled, the room had an answer no one fully saw coming. Kalani High School swept the day in commanding fashion — taking 1st place Overall with Shocked n' Appalled, 3rd place Overall with YALL, and Honolulu County Champion honors with The Kneecaps. The biggest story, though, was who they displaced: Kealakehe High School, back-to-back champions coming into the competition, claimed 2nd place Overall (Royal Clashers) and Hawaiʻi Island County (Golden Plovers) — a strong showing that still adds up to a changing of the guard. Maui County honors went to Wisdom Warriors of Maui High School. And for Shocked n' Appalled, the celebration doesn't stop in Honolulu — thanks to the generous sponsorship of Southwest Airlines, the team will travel to Washington, D.C. to represent Hawaiʻi at the National Academic WorldQuest competition. It was the kind of result that will be talked about at next year's orientation.
🏅 Meet the Winners
🥇 1st Place Overall
Shocked n’ Appalled
Kalani High School
Jayden Tran, Ivan Tse, Bryce Hara, Anson Li
🥈 2nd Place Overall
Royal Clashers
Kealakehe High School
Jerry Jiang, Nathan Masquida, Lucy Cameron, Luke Gee
🥉 3rd Place Overall
YALL
Kalani High School
Yinyi Chen, Leala Florendo, Aurora Sullivan, Lino Tseng
County Champions
Hawaiʻi County
The Kneecaps
Kalani High School
Museong Kim, Amelia Sullivan, Cathy Tran, Leo Tse
Hawaiʻi Island County
Golden Plovers
Kealakehe High School
Autumn Brown, June Wheeler, Leah Hillert, Hakyung Jun
Maui County
Wisdom Warriors
Maui High School
Athena Dela Cruz, Julieanne Espanol, Nicole Espanol, Rhianela Palapar
Preparation Makes the Difference
What happens in the days and weeks before competition matters just as much as what unfolds in the room. This year, participation in PAAC's preparatory coaching sessions increased 5% over 2025 — a modest but meaningful climb — and the pattern in the data was clear: students who attended coaching sessions were disproportionately represented among the top-placing teams. The connection between preparation and performance isn't surprising, but it says something real about what AWQ rewards: not just test-taking instinct, but sustained investment in learning material that feels genuinely foreign at first.
What Students Said
“Studying topics that I feel like we normally wouldn’t learn about in school or that I wouldn’t take interest in on my own was very valuable in increasing my knowledge about the world around me.
”
That quote lands differently when you look at the full picture of what students reported. Of 76 post-event evaluations completed, 72% of students rated the experience a 4 or 5 out of 5 for meaningfulness. The questions earned even stronger marks: 89% rated them a 4 or 5 for being both challenging and educational, with zero negative responses in that category. But what the numbers can't fully capture is the texture of what students said in their own words — that they made real friends through the study sessions, that they felt the rush of a correct answer announced to the room, that they now see the world differently because of what a category on soft power made them curious about.
Why It Matters
Academic WorldQuest is one of PAAC's longest-running programs, and the 2026 competition — 147 students from public, private, charter, and homeschool backgrounds across three islands — reflects what happens when global education is made accessible statewide. For Hawaiʻi, a state whose future is deeply tied to its relationships across the Asia-Pacific, events like AWQ aren't supplemental. They're preparation. When a student in Maui or Hilo or Kaimukī figures out that coffee supply chains connect to climate policy connect to international trade negotiations, they're building the kind of contextual thinking that no standardized test measures — but that the world will absolutely ask of them.
Congratulations to all 147 competitors, their coaches, and the teams who will carry this year's results into next year's preparation.
Follow PAAC to stay updated on registration, coaching sessions, and how to bring Academic WorldQuest to your school.
Thank You to Our Sponsors
This event would not be possible without the support of the Southwest Airlines and the McInerny Foundation. Their generous contributions help make these transformative experiences possible for students across Hawaiʻi.
WHat’s next
Congratulations to all 147 competitors, their coaches, and the teams who will carry this year's results into next year's preparation. Follow PAAC to stay updated on registration, coaching sessions, and how to bring Academic WorldQuest to your school.
