MBA’s Santos, 2 others finalists in Geographic Bee

Marianas Baptist Academy’s seventh grader Victoria Nicole Santos, right, is among three CNMI bets in the final 10 of the National Geographic Bee contest for Pacific Territories. MBA’s English and history teacher Manuel Castro, left, is helping Santos review for the April 1 finals. (Jon Perez)

Marianas Baptist Academy’s Victoria Nicole Santos will join two other CNMI bets in the Pacific Territories’ finals of the National Geographic Bee. The final test will be held on April 1 with the winner representing the Pacific Territories in the national finals in Washington, D.C. on May 22.

Grace Christian Academy-Saipan’s Jabez Victoria, who is also part of her school’s champion team in the 14th Annual CNMI Academic Challenge Bowl, and Hopwood Junior High School’s Xue Zhen Qiu will join Santos after also qualifying for the final test.

Guam’s Katherine Cruz (Bishop Baumgartner Memorial Catholic School), Napu Blas (Captain Henry B. Price Elementary School), and Brian Chan (Harvest Christian Academy) and American Samoa’s Sitivi Wong Mageo (Manumalo Baptist Academy), Tovi’o Aufata (Olomoana Elementary School), Victor Chen (Pacific Horizons School), and Aiden Siuloa (U.P. Coleman Elementary School) are the other finalists from the Pacific Territories.

Airfare, hotel accommodations, and meals will be provided for the winning Pacific Territories representative.

Santos, whose favorite subject is mathematics, said she really likes joining various academic competitions. She is also part of MBA’s MathCourt and Academic Bowl teams.

“I find history and geography interesting subjects since you learn a lot when studying the historical importance of a particular place and the people who lived there,” said Santos, who topped the school’s competition last December by besting 25 other students from the sixth to eight grades

“I studied a lot for this. I read a lot of books where I memorized important dates and places. I just wanted to win this,” added Santos, who also became the CNMI MathCourt team’s fourth member after her score was miscalculated during last month’s competition.

Santos, who is also on the President’s List, finished fourth after her score was computed again dropping GCA’s Harry Noh to one of the four alternates—Agape Christian School’s Duojia Yu, Seongbeom Song, and Ki Chang Jeoung.

ACS swept the Top 3 with Frederic Dean Michael Guintu, Quing Yuan Wang, and Da Wei Cai leading Team CNMI in the national finals in set this weekend in San Francisco.

“She earned the fourth spot after we informed Dora Miura. They clarified and checked her score, and they found out that there was an error on the computation,” said MBA’s history and English teacher Manuel Castro, who is also Santos’ coach.

The 12-year-old Santos, who transferred from ACS this school year, said that she has mixed emotions for next month’s Geographic Bee finals for Pacific Territories. “I’m nervous and at the same time excited. I usually play with my brothers and watch television to relax myself.”