Ludington qualifies for state GeoBee

To the Press

Isaac Ludington, a 6th-grader at Charles City Middle School, recently qualified for the Iowa State Geography Bee.

Ludington will compete at Northern Iowa on March 27 for a chance to travel to Washington, DC, to compete in the National Geographic Geography Bee Championship.

This is the second level of the National Geographic GeoBee competition, which is now in its 32nd year.

To determine each school champion, GeoBee competitions were held in schools throughout the state, with students in grades 4-8. This year, an estimated 2.4 million students competed in the GeoBee, with 8,661 students becoming school champions.

School champions also took an online qualifying test, which they submitted to the National Geographic Society.

Up to 100 of the top-scoring students in each of the 50 states, the District of Columbia, Department of Defense Dependents Schools and U.S. territories have been invited to compete in the state GeoBees.

State champions will receive a medal, $1,000 in cash, and other prizes, as well as a trip to Washington, D.C., to represent their state in the National Championship where they will compete for additional cash, awards and college scholarships.The second- and third-place State GeoBee winners will receive cash awards of $300 and $100, respectively.

The 2020 National Championship will take place May 18-21 at National Geographic headquarters. The National Champion will receive a $25,000 college scholarship, $1,000 in cash, a lifetime membership in the National Geographic Society and an all-expenses-paid Lindblad expedition to the Galápagos Islands aboard the National Geographic Endeavour II.

The second-place finisher will receive a $10,000 college scholarship and $1,000 in cash; the student finishing in third place will receive a $5,000 college scholarship and $1,000 in cash; and seven runners-up will each receive $1,000 in cash.