After participating in the middle school’s second annual “Geo Bee,” Soham Khan, grade 8, has been selected to represent Harker at the state finals of the National Geographic Bee, slated to occur in Sacramento in early April. Khan also won the Harker Geo Bee last year and qualified to go to the State Bee.

Khan was one of 14 participants who took part in the Bee, held on the middle school campus. He emerged as the winner of the contest, which was intended to serve as a qualifying round for further competition against other schools at the state and national levels.

Each year thousands of schools across the country participate in the National Geographic Bee. Using materials prepared by the National Geographic Society, the highly competitive contest encourages teachers to include geography in their classrooms and spark students’ curiosity about the topic.

During the Harker Bee, fellow eighth grader Nikhil Manglik came in at a close second to Khan. According to Andrea Milius, grade 7 world studies teacher, both students answered all the championship-stage questions and had to go into extra rounds. “It was so sweet, when Soham won, Nikhil promptly wished him congratulations! All of the participants did a great job,” she said.

Following his win at the middle school, Khan successfully took a test in order to be able to go on to represent Harker at the next stage of the competition: the state level. For the final, national level, the Geography Bee only takes the top 100 qualifiers from each state.

The entire middle school wished Khan well during a recent school meeting. Marked by the Bee’s 25th anniversary and Alex Trebek’s final year as host, the much anticipated grand finale will take place in May at the historic National Theater in downtown Washington, D.C.