Ponte Vedra High School students participate in statewide Chinese competition

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The Ponte Vedra High School Chinese competition team recently competed in the 13th annual Florida Statewide Chinese Competition held at Belen Jesuit Preparatory School in Miami.

The team of students arrived to the event Feb. 23. On the first day after a banquet dinner, the preliminary round of “Jeopardy!” took place. Categories included Chinese medicine, culture, food and stories/tales. Ponte Vedra went against Gulliver Preparatory, St. Andrew’s and St. Edward’s, and ultimately placed second with $2,600 by answering Double Jeopardy and Final Jeopardy correctly.

The students’ monetary amount found Ponte Vedra in third overall, and an opportunity to advance to finals. The final round consisted of 11 schools and new categories including Han Dynasty inventions, ancient history and people. Ponte Vedra ended up with no money after wagering all of its earnings and answering the Final Jeopardy incorrectly.

The academic competitions took place on Saturday, Feb. 24, with Katherine Bi-Ji (9), Hannah Gundelfinger (12), Elliot Kantor (9) and Melissa Lukawitz (9) participating in level two; Livi Bowers (10), Chris Cavaliere (11), Catherine Culliton (10) and Maddi Paxton (10) in level three; and Philip Kinder (12) in level four. There were three parts to the tests, including a speaking, reading and writing portion. Scores and school results have not officially been revealed. The students devoted countless hours of preparation to the event and received instruction from Mrs. Li.