On Saturday, February 2nd, Williamsville East High School’s Science Olympiad (Scioly) team competed in the Lake Erie-Niagara Regional Science Olympiad Competition held at Canisius College. This year was the first time East had three teams participating in the regional competition- the Red, Gold, and White teams- giving our school a total of 45 competing students and the largest representation at the competition.
East’s Red Team, which has consistently placed in the top three regionally, took second place and won a chance to compete at the State Science Olympiad competition in March, beating out over 30 other teams. Gold Team was also very successful, earning 8th place overall. East students from all three teams won medals in events like Anatomy, Disease Detectives, Designer Genes, Rocks and Minerals, Bungee Drop, and Dynamic Planet. Additionally, Red team captain Melissa Li was recognized as one of the top-performing juniors at the Olympiad and chosen as a finalist to earn Canisius College’s highest merit scholarship.
Captain Megan He, who has been a Red Team member all four years, says, “I’m so proud of our team for kicking butt like always and love each and every one of them because we wouldn’t be Will East Scioly without them.”
A typical regional competition for Science Olympiad is a rather messy, sometimes chaotic, but always exciting day of competition and achievement in all disciplines of science. From astronomy to ecology to building elaborate Rube Goldberg machines, Science Olympiad has an event for anyone remotely interested in science or technology. And the East Science Olympiad team is more than interested. Our team members are extremely determined and self driven; with highly selective tryouts in October along with in-school meetings and 4-hour-long study sessions every other weekend, it’s no surprise the East team is so strong.
Gold Team Captain Soumya Gupta shares her thoughts about Science Olympiad: “”People say that sports-cross country, swimming, tennis- take a lot of strength and endurance, but they don’t often realize that something like Science Olympiad is also a test of these skills. It challenges us to see who can persistently focus on and study the meticulous details for each of our events, and this often takes 4, 5, even 10 hours at a time. So before the day of Regionals Competition, I would ask myself, ‘Is all this time spent studying and perfecting our notes worth it in the long run?’…but just like any sport, when I get to stand up in front of hundreds of other competitors and wear one of the coveted medals that I know I deserved, I think, ‘Yes, it definitely is.’”
But for all that we study, the East Scioly team also knows how to have fun. The team is truly like a big family whether we’re late-night cramming for a competition or singing (loudly and badly) on the bus to States and annoying the heck out of Williamsville North kids. We may wear lab coats and balance chemical equations instead of playing sports, but like any other team, East Science Olympiad brings many different people together in pursuit of one goal. And that creates an amazing dynamic.
Senior Evan Sparks and Red Team member thinks back to his time in Science Olympiad: “It’s been an absolute joy to compete all these years with such fantastic teammates. We build a sense of community that transfigures itself into success, which continually drives our motivation to work even harder for the next competition. I’ll look back on my years on the Science Olympiad team with great fondness, knowing that they have made me and many others the people we are today.”
