Texas student tops in geography

The State Board of Education recently honored Pranay Varada, who is the 2017 National Geographic Bee winner. 

Last school year as an eighth-grade student in the Carrollton-Farmers Branch Independent School District, Varada was one of 2.6 million students nationwide who competed in the bee. 

He studied intensively during the 2016-2017 school year as he was determined to improve his previous year’s standing when he finished in sixth place nationally. 

To compete at the national level, students must enter and win at the local and state level. The competition was so stiff at the 2017 Texas bee that the judges ran out of questions, said State Board of Education member Pat Hardy. They ultimately moved to tie-breaker questions. 

At the national bee, held in Washington, D.C., the competition was just as intense. 

Ultimately, the national bee came down to a tense verbal dual between Varada and a Wisconsin student. In a sudden-death play-off Varada won the first tie-breaker question by correctly identifying the Kunlun Mountains as the 1,200-mile range that separates the Taklimakan Desert from the Tibetan Plateau. 

Hardy, who frequently judges local bees, said this marked the fourth time in nine years that a Texas student won the national competition. 

Along with earning the satisfaction of fulfilling his goal, Varada won a $50,000 scholarship, a trip to the Galapagos Islands and a lifetime membership in the National Geographic Society.  

At the Sept. 15 State Board meeting, he was presented with a resolution from the board, as well as a resolution from the governor. 

You can learn more about registering your school for the bee at https://www.nationalgeographic.org/bee/.