Academic WorldQuest™
Each year, World Affairs Councils around the United States host Academic WorldQuest competitions for high school students. Academic WorldQuest™ tests players’ knowledge of current international politics, geography, global economics, history, and world cultures. The World Affairs Council of Kentucky and Southern Indiana hosts nearly 60 Kentuckiana students, who participate each Spring. Teams of four (4) study for a chance to compete on the national level in Washington D.C. against other regional winners.
The competition consists of 100 multiple-choice questions, including 10 sections of 10 questions. Participants prepare for the competition by studying an online study guide. The World Affairs Councils of America decides the 10 topics based on the most relevant global issues of that year. In the case of a tie, the competition can go into a tiebreaker round of 10 multiple-choice questions and then a sudden death round of five questions that require write-in answers.
Approximately 4,000 students across the country participate in competitions hosted by over 40 local World Affairs Councils across the United States. Winning teams are invited to represent their high school, city, and local council at the national competition, held in the spring each year in the nation’s capital, Washington, DC.
WHY IS ACADEMIC WORLDQUEST™ IMPORTANT?
With funding for school programs other than “basics” falling away, the opportunities for high school students to learn geography, world history, and world affairs have dwindled to almost nothing in American high schools while globalization and interdependence continue to knit the world more closely together each passing day and year.
The World Affairs Council system does a lot to counter this isolationist pedagogical trend already through the making of curriculum units for high schools, the organizing of teachers’ workshops, and the sending abroad of teachers and students. We want to build on our already existing and successful programs that seek to reverse this unfortunate and counterproductive educational trend.
2023 - 2024 ACADEMIC WORLDQUEST™
The 2023-24 Regional Competition will be held on March 16, 2024 at Bellarmine University.
This year’s topics are:
The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO): Alliance and Collective Defense in a Changing World
Demographic Dividends - Population Shift in Africa
The Global South
Sports and Diplomacy
Country in Focus: South Korea
Promoting a Green Europe
Women's Contributions to Track II Diplomacy
Navigating AI: The Global Workforce
Great Decisions
Current Events
An information packet is provided below, which includes the AWQ study guide with detailed resources on each of 10 question categories to help students and teachers to prepare for the competition (with the exception of the Current Events category). Questions for the competition are drawn from the resources in the AWQ study guide.
For more information, please contact us at contact@worldkentucky.org