Q: What inspired you to start Hi-Q?
Leah participated in Hi-Q at her former school and says she did not expect it to become such a great, comfortable environment. She made friends with every member of the team and wants to recreate that experience for students at AIS.
Q: How do competitions work?
Four members go up for each team, and there are usually three teams on stage. Questions will go down the line of players, and sometimes a team will have to buzz the answer. The competition has two halves, with different categories for each half.
Q: Most dramatic competition moment?
Leah will not name this team out of respect and decorum, but she once competed against a team that was illegally cueing answers to each other. This happened TWICE during the county semifinals!!
Q: What was your favorite topic to study?
Leah was in charge of studying current events in her sophomore year. She says it was a valuable experience because she learned a lot about the rising tensions between Russia and Ukraine before the war had even started.
Q: If you had to pick a teacher from AIS to compete with Hi-Q, who would you choose?
Leah would pick Ms. Bertrand because Hi-Q competitions use a math question as a tiebreaker (so Mean Girls proves to be an accurate source of information). She also thinks that Dr. Beasom would already know very specific details, so he could be a good member of the team.
Q: What does Hi-Q stand for?
Hi-Q is a short version of saying “High IQ”!
Q: What do you want people at AIS to know about Hi-Q?
Leah is open to anyone joining; she says that sometimes people will hesitate to join because they think they “aren’t smart enough”, but Leah wants people to know that’s definitely not true! Anyone can both succeed in competitions and have a great time being part of the team.
Also, there will be no competitions this year (there will still be scrimmages and inter-squad matches, though) so people can join this year without the stress of having to compete with other teams!
Leah thinks that students who have any interest should definitely get involved this year. “Next year will be more intense and a bigger commitment, so this year is the best way to test the waters and see if you like Hi-Q”, Leah says. Reach out to her by email at [email protected] if you’re interested or have any questions about Hi-Q!
