The Edmond Sun

Education

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April 2, 2006

Home schooler knows his world

Edmond student wins state geography bee

Justin Martino

EDMOND — Adam Krejci may be preparing for the national finals for the AAA Travel High School Challenge, but he’s not letting that slow him down from his other activities.

Krejci, a home-school student in Edmond, won the state title in the competition and will travel to Orlando, Fla., in May to compete with other state finalists.

Learning about winning the state title helped lessen Krejci’s disappointment over a different defeat the same day.

“Ironically enough, we had our homeschool basketball national tournament that week, and our team had lost in the quarter finals,” he said. “

Despite being involved in basketball, band, academic teams and theater through various homeschool programs, Krejci is still finding time to study for the national finals.

“I always try to spend two or three hours a day on it. It was pretty much the main thing I studied for the better part of three or four weeks,” he said.

Adam’s mother, Robin Krejci, said his interest in geography started before he even started kindergarten.

“Every map, every book he could get his hands on, he was studying that,” she said.

Robin Krejci tried home schooling her children as an experiment and an attempt to spend more time with them. As her children grew older, they were given the choice to attend schools and chose to continue with home schooling.

“It was just fun,” she said. “Here’s an opportunity to spend more time with my kids.”

Despite his interest in geography, Adam Krejci plans to major in political science or history when he starts college.

The AAA Travel High School Challenge, now in its fourth year, tests participants’ knowledge of U.S. and world geography, emphasizing travel and tourist destinations. The first-place winner of the national finals will receive a $25,000 college scholarship.

Krista Mullenger, head of travel agency operations of AAA Oklahoma, said Adam Krejci’s accomplishment was a great achievement.

“With surveys showing American teens trailing their international counterparts in geographic literacy, it’s great to see students like Adam excelling in their travel and geographic knowledge,” Mullenger said.

(Education Reporter Justin Martino may be reached via e-mail at jmartino@edmondsun.com.)

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