Geography Genius

May 23, 2003
Geography Genius
Fourteen-year-old James Williams puts himself on the map with his geography bee victory
BY NEEPA SHAH

Goa, a state in southwestern India, was owned by which country until 1961? Don't know? Well, knowing that Portugal owned Goa at that time and other geography tidbits helped 14-year-old James Williams become the 2003 U.S. National Geographic Bee champion.
Williams missed just three questions during the two-day tournament this week. During the competition, he took virtual journeys everywhere from island countries in the Persian Gulf to volcanic formations in Tanzania.
A Busy Bee
Williams, a homeschooled student from Vancouver, Washington, said he studied up to five hours a day for the competition. After beating out 55 local champions (from a field of more than 5 million participants nationwide) and 10 finalists, Williams headed to the White House to meet the President! He also appeared on NBC Today show and CNN.
His first place finish earned him a $25,000 college scholarship, a lifetime subscription to National Geographic and a week at SeaWorld and Busch Gardens Adventure Camp.
On top of being a geography ace, Williams is also a science wiz. He participated in a science olympiad in Ohio this year, and will go on to compete as a member of the Washington-Oregon science bowl team later this year. He not letting the success get to his head, though. "I wasn expecting this at all, it really exciting," he said politely after his big win.


Where in the World is? Can the rest of the world keep up with Williams? According to a recent study, it looks like most Americans can learn a thing or two from Williams. About 11 percent of Americans aged 18 to 24 cannot find their own country on a map, according to last year's National Geographic-Roper Global Literacy Survey. Another 50 percent could not properly identify China, the United Kingdom or Japan. Top scorers, according to the study, were young adults in Sweden, Germany, and Italy.

I think that geography is a very important subject. We should study geography to help us know more about the earth. There are a lot of countries in the world. If we want to learn more about it, read geography. Geography is very interesting it is also very helpful. 14-year-old James Williams was the national Geographic Bee champion in 2003. I think that James Williams might do a lot of efforts on studying geography. He traveled to a lot of places to know more geography. James Williams survived from the competition and win the geography bee. It is a great honor to win the geography bee competition. If I have a chance to go traveling I will go everywhere too.