Malden High School was represented among 140 other schools by seniors Kelvin Cheng Bo, Andrew Cogliano, Kaitlyn Gibson, Jasper Haag, Samantha Forestier, and Merjem Rizvancevic at WGBH’s High School Quiz Show on Sunday, Nov. 15, 2015. They competed in the largest preliminary round in the show’s history. The team was led by MHS history teacher Jonathan Copithorne. Copithorne commented that the students “represented the school well and impressed the moderators with their answers.”
Rizvancevic expressed her enjoyment in participating in the show, stating that “[she wishes she] could come back next year” to do it again. She decided to join the team because “a few of [her] friends were doing it” and “it sounded like a cool idea.” Cheng Bo added that he “oftens works with these people” and how different it was “to work with them academically, but outside of school.” Rizvancevic’s favorite part of the day was when they “took a group picture with a Billy Costa cut out.”
According to the team members, the questions pertained to English, history, science, and math. Even though they did “far better than [they] thought [they] would … [they] all agreed that [they] wished there were more science questions.” Each one of them are extremely active in the math and science departments, but were still able to triumph in the English and history categories.
Rizvancevic recalled a moment from the end of the show when the team had to answer “category based questions.” “There were a few times when [they] knew the answer, but were so excited about it that [they] either said the wrong thing, or spoke too soon” explained Cheng Bo. But he considers it to be “memorable” with “funny mistakes.”
The team will be notified on Monday Nov. 23, 2015 if their round will air on television. Rizvancevic, speaking on behalf of the team, added that “[they] really hope [they’re] on TV next week” after all of the hard work they took to prepare for the day of the show. If selected, WBGH will air their round along with other, though very few, select high schools.
