For the second consecutive year, Maryum Faisal won the Pocantico Hills School’s National Geographic GeoBee.
The eighth-grader will take an online test to see if she qualifies to compete in the New York State Geographic Bee in Albany April 6. The top 100 will take part in the state event.
“It feels good to know that I had a mark in the school that I could leave,” Maryum said after the school’s tenth annual GeoBee, on January 16. “There’s a plaque in the library with all the champions’ names. My oldest brother has three, now I’m going to have two.”
Her brother, Faisal Saquib, won the contest in from 2016-2018. In 2018, Maryum placed second. This year, her younger sister Tasnim was third. It was the first year the fourth-grader could compete in the event, which is for students in grades 4-8.
Sixth-grader Zayd Rahman came in second place. This was his second year competing. Zayd said he has been interested in studying geography since he qualified for the bee last year. He has a particular interest in studying national parks in different countries.
The top two geography students from each of the five grades competed in the schoolwide GeoBee. The other students were Max Sabety (fourth grade); Saad Iqbal (fifth grade); Meadow Gurreri (fifth grade); Emily Andersen (sixth grade); Zachary Maad (seventh grade); Serena Xu (seventh grade); and Adya Tiwari (eighth grade).
