Camarillo Academic Olympics in full swing at local schools
By Michelle Knight knight@theacorn.com

The year was 1996, and 12year-old Kara Tredway of St. Mary Magdalen School did what no other student had done before. She won four gold medals in the Camarillo Academic Olympics.

Kara's record still stands. But some 1,900 students from grades four to eight in 19 private and public schools in Camarillo and Somis will try to match or beat her record in the 14th annual event on April 11 at Monte Vista Middle School.

The Academic Olympics is a series of competitions that are free and voluntary to students and schools.

"We don't put any pressure on kids or the teachers" to participate, said Frank Roth, chair of the biennial event.

Students compete in two divisions- sixth, seventh and eighthgraders in Division I and fourthand fifth-graders in Division II- and accumulate points by answering questions correctly in subject areas that include math, science, current events and world history.

To keep the Olympics fun, organizers don't reveal scores, only the winners.

The first round of competitions, which ends today, starts at the classroom and school levels. All students receive a ribbon for participating. The top three students in each subject go to the city preliminary round, scheduled for Feb. 20-22 at the Camarillo Boys & Girls Club.

The top six students in each subject will advance to the city finals on March 11-13 at City Hall. The event is scheduled to be televised on local cable TV.

Students can also represent their school by competing on a five-member Superquiz team. Teams answer questions based on a preselected topic. This year it's weather.

The best six Superquiz teams to emerge from a preliminary round on March 13 will compete in the finals at Monte Vista Middle School on April 11. That same evening, winners of the academic subject areas receive their medals.

The top Superquiz team in both divisions is also awarded a medal, and a trophy is presented to their school to display until the next Academic Olympics.

Roth said awards night is a popular event attended by about 1,000 people.

The Camarillo Academic Olympics started in 1983 as an annual event, but because it's such a massive undertaking requiring 400 to 450 volunteers to put on, it became a biennial event three years later, Roth said.

Organizers begin preparing a year in advance. As the event draws closer, Roth and other volunteers have been known to put in as many as 50 hours a week to sort out all the details- venue, site coordination and lining up sponsors, to name a few.

The Academic Olympics cost nearly $20,000, and the city gives organizers a $2,500 grant and the use of City Hall. Pleasant Valley School District and the Boys & Girls Club of Camarillo also donate the use of their facilities. The majority of donations, however, come from business sponsors.

"It takes a lot of effort," Roth said, "but it's got a lot of rewards in a lot of different ways."

After each Olympics, Roth said organizers usually receive a letter or two of thanks from parents. He remembers one family who wrote to say their son, a devoted reader of National Geographic magazine but otherwise an ordinary student, won sixth place in geography that year. After the event, his parents said he seemed to open up in class and perform better, Roth said.

As for Kara Tredway, she's now 25, has earned a master's degree and plans to attend law school later this year. When she was in town a couple of years ago, she attended the awards night and thanked organizers.

Her unprecedented win in the Academic Olympics a dozen years ago was the first validation outside of the family that all her hard work was paying off, said her mother, Pat Tredway.