MMI Preparatory School seventh grade student Heath Williams won the school’s National Geographic GeoBee competition and eighth grader Jakob Narrow placed second.

Williams will now take an online qualifying test for entrance into the state competition. MMI Social Sciences instructor Grete Floryshak served as MMI’s GeoBee coordinator and the moderator for the competition. MMI faculty members Rev. Lawrence Barriger, Christine Lizbinski, and Laurie Mele were the scorekeepers.

Heath Williams is the son of Atty. Richard and Shannon Williams of Mountaintop. Jakob Narrow is the son of Howard and Marie Narrow of Hazleton.

The National Geographic GeoBee is an annual competition designed to inspire and reward students’ curiosity about the world. Fourth through eighth grade students from nearly 10,000 schools across the United States will compete in the 2019 National Geographic GeoBee for a chance to win college scholarships and be named the National Geographic GeoBee Champion.

The National Geographic GeoBee includes three levels of competition: school, state, and national. Schools conduct a GeoBee and name a school champion. The school champion then takes a proctored online qualifying test and the top 100 ranked students in each state qualify to represent their school at the state-level GeoBee competition. State GeoBee qualifiers will be announced on March 4 and the state championship will be held March 29. State champions then travel to the National Geographic headquarters in Washington, D.C., to compete in the national championship, which will be held from May 19-22.

#####

CAPTION: MMI Preparatory School seventh grader Heath Williams, center, won the school’s National Geographic GeoBee competition. Also pictured are, from left: MMI eighth grader Jakob Narrow, who placed second in the competition, and MMI Social Sciences instructor Grete Floryshak, who served as MMI’s GeoBee coordinator and the moderator for the competition.