Catholic Central team stars in national competition about world affairs

NATO, Bridging Divides to Build Peace, Global Refugee and Migration Crisis, Qatar Blockade, World Trade Organization, North Korea and Space Policy. 

These are some pretty weighty organizations and issues that even some high-level U.S. government officials might have trouble answering questions on.

But a quartet of students from Catholic Central High School in Troy finished an impressive ninth recently in a national competition about world issues in Washington, D.C.

Paul Barnas, brothers Lucas and Sebastian Kania and Michael Paglia comprised the CCHS team that competed in Academic WorldQuest — a global affairs and U.S. foreign policy-based competition in which students compete through a series of 100 multiple-choice questions over the course of 10 rounds, with one minute to answer each question. The competition is hosted by the World Affairs Council. 

With four students per team, each correct answer equates to one point. Students are tested on their knowledge of current international politics, geography, global economics, history and world cultures. 

“I was never interested in this current event stuff before this came around. Before when these guys would talk about it, I would have no idea what’s going on. Now, I actually know what’s going on and I can converse and say my own opinion about things and I know much more about what’s going on around me,” Lucas Kania said. 

His brother, Sebastian, agreed.

“It’s very rewarding for me because I personally want to be into history, I want to be a professor in that field. It’s really helping me see how trends in history, years past, even decades past, are still continuing on today. How our modern world is affected by history of the past.”  

As one of the few returning teams at Nationals this year, the CCHS team scored 78 out of 100 points, reaching their goal to be top 10 in the nation.

The average score at the competition held in April was 69 points in the 45-team field held. To secure their spot in the national competition, CCHS edged Shaker High School, Shenendehowa High School and the Academy of Holy Names at the local competition at Russell Sage College with 83 points. Aside from knowing what to expect this time around for the National WordQuest competition, the young men credit their progress in better assigning who will take on which categories based on their individual interests.

“We split it to everyone’s strength,” Paglia said.  

While the category “Current Events” is something all members study, 80 percent of the questions are based off of eight other categories, so each team member must become an expert in their categories and use their knowledge to teach and quiz the others. 

“We all knew each others’ categories better, so it was a much better experience,” Sebastian Kania said.

The competition brought on by Academic WorldQuest has been rewarding in more ways than learning to manage their time. 

“I think it’s taught me really how to be dedicated. I’m interested in global affairs and what’s going on in the world. I remember nights when I was sitting in front of my computer studying, it just became a part of my routine. It’s taught a lot about dedication; just sticking to something and making sure you’re the best you can be at it,” Paglia said.

“Even though I’m not really interested in the history field, I really want to become an optometrist. It’s still helped me a lot with my studying skills, so it’s helped me out a lot in school with honors classes, AP classes,” Barnas said.

The young men spend plenty of time “cooling down” after long study sessions grabbing food, playing video games and watching YouTube videos together. 

The group says the competition should be more popular and wishes more kids would participate. As for their advice: Just jump in and do it; start early and be dedicated. A little competition doesn’t hurt, either.

“We love competition, that’s what that Shaker team did. They pushed us to go farther. They were beating us at one point,” Sebastian Kania said.

“They’re gonna be back and they’re gonna be hungry, but we like the competition so we’ll be ready for them.”