Mother Seton School Students Map Their Way to Winning in Annual Geography Bee

The Vai script is a unique indigenous writing system found in Sierra Leone and what country to its southeast? Sixth-grader Maryn Rajaski could tell you. (The answer is Liberia!) The Mother Seton School student placed first in the school-wide Geography Bee held on January 17, 2020. Maryn is no stranger to the finals; last year, she was the runner-up. Maryn will now have the opportunity to take an online test to be submitted to the National Geography Bee. The top 100 finalists in Maryland as determined by the test will move on to the state-level competition in March. The final competition is the National Geography Bee, which will be held in May. The National winner receives a $50,000 college scholarship. The National Geography Bee is in its 32nd year and is sponsored by the National Geographic Society.

Elizabeth Vines, Middle School teacher and Geography Bee coordinator, says participation in the Bee is a fun way to promote the value of understanding the world around us. “I tell the students they are global citizens,” she said. “The Bee is one of the ways in which we try to broaden their minds.”

Maryn competed against other classmates who were selected after the initial classroom screening, including: Robert Mongelluzzo and Dylan Slusher (Gr. 4); Elizabeth Iferd and Vivian Lewis (Gr. 5); Grace Hewitt (Gr. 6); Brady Koenig and Aidan Shranatan (Gr. 7); Elizabeth Goodwin and Tim McCarthy (Gr. 8).