Irvington High Academic Challenge Team Advances to Nationals

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Irvington Academic Challenge Team — (Top row from left) Esha Shenoy, Paul Biaggi, Henry Demarest and Seungchan Yun; and (bottom row from left) Eadin Block, Andrew Zhou, Chinmay Joshi and Anhuman Das are members of Irvington High School’s Academic Challenge team.

May 6, 2021

By Rick Pezzullo—

Five members of Irvington High School’s Academic Challenge team will compete in the 2021 National Academic Championship, which will be held virtually in June.

The team qualified for the national competition after their strong performance at the Westchester Academic Challenge of Knowledge Organization and the Metropolitan Academic Challenge Conference tournaments.

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Throughout the season, the students – Paul Biaggi, Eadin Block, Anshuman Das, Henry Demarest, Chinmay Joshi, Esha Shenoy, Seungchan Yun and Andrew Zhou – answered a series of questions with an emphasis on academics, including math, history, geography, science, literature, world language and music.

“I’m so proud of all the team has achieved over the past few years,” said Shenoy, a senior and the team’s captain. “It’s a really wonderful group of students who each bring specific skill sets and certainly lots of camaraderie to the team. The fact that we’ve qualified for the national tournament four years in a row speaks to the team’s dedication and perseverance.”

Block, Demarest, Joshi, Shenoy and Zhou will compete as a team at the national championship.

“As proud as I am of their success at competitions, I’m even more proud of how well the team works together during practices to help each other with such difficult and varied material,” said Ann Yee, who co-advises the club with Devon Steuer.

“They become each other’s teachers when they explain why an answer is correct, and they are coaches for each other when they work to develop strategies to play to their individual strengths and compete under pressure,” she added.

Photo: (Top row from left) Esha Shenoy, Paul Biaggi, Henry Demarest and Seungchan Yun; and (bottom row from left) Eadin Block, Andrew Zhou, Chinmay Joshi and Anhuman Das are members of Irvington High School’s Academic Challenge team.

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