A team comprised of mostly seniors and several underclassmen brought home first place at the local Worldwide Youth in Science and Engineering competition. Local schools such as Borgia and Union were also at this event.

“There is a small group and a large group that competes, and we’re part of the large group and we go against schools we don’t compete against normally, except for Borgia,” senior Lydia Juengling said.

Students have the opportunity to participate in six events at this competition including biology, chemistry, computer science, engineering graphics, English, mathematics and physics.

“You go into a large room and take two different tests, depending on which subjects you take, and your friends are there,” senior Ryan Hill said. “You do a lot of fun activities while you’re waiting for the scores to come in.”

For students wanting to participate in WYSE, all you need is a teacher recommendation.

“My math teacher asked us who would like to go, and she created a sign-up sheet with all of the different tests on it and we signed up for which tests we wanted to take,” Juengling said.

While this experience can be nerve-racking, it is also very rewarding.

“It helped my confidence academically, and it was my first year competing,” senior Megan Geiler said.

Competing in an academic competition can be stressful, but there are ways to prepare. Many students on the WYSE team have competed for the past two years.

“Last year I went and was really nervous, but this year I wasn’t as nervous because I knew what it was going to be like,” Jungling said. “The test is similar to an AP test, like you don’t know all of the material, but you try your best.”

The opportunity to compete at WYSE is a unique experience that these students feel more students should take part in.

“I was surprised [to place first in chemistry], since I haven’t taken chemistry since last year, but I was super excited about it,” Geiler said. “It’s a great experience, and it’s fun to see how your skills compare to other people around the area.”