With the 2024 Summer Paris Olympics just held last summer and the 2026 Winter Milano Cortine Olympics approaching less than a year away, competition has been and is in the air. Although “Olympics” popularly refers to the major international sporting event every four years, its meaning is not limited to the sporting realm. At WCHS, bright and passionate students represent the school as a team in Science Olympic events year-round.
Formally known as the Science Olympiad, it is a national team STEM competition for middle and high school students. It offers standards-based challenges in various fields of science to thousands of teams at hundreds of tournaments year-round across the U.S. At the beginning of the year, members of the WCHS Science Olympiad Team were assessed on their knowledge of all facets of science, such as biology, chemistry, physics and more. Then, they were asked about their interests and prior course experience to be grouped into more concentrated clusters.
“I am in the biology cluster, but we also have an inquiry cluster, an earth science cluster and many more,” WCHS senior and President of the Science Olympiad Team Myla Leung said. “We work with the members of our same clusters year-round, studying and training together for the events we compete at competitions. So, since each member specializes in a particular category of science, we are able to maximize our overall team performance at the tournaments.”
The whole team meets every Thursday and Friday after school in Mr. Lee’s room where clusters can study their respective content and take practice tests together. However, some also come together on the weekends at a library to do so, exemplifying the dedication that is needed to achieve success.
“We together help to keep each other accountable but we do independently have to be very driven,” Leung said. “Everyone has to create their own notes and materials curated to them. There are resources like a weekly page and guidelines we can follow, pertaining to the type of events we compete for, but it is up to us to utilize those resources and put in our own time and effort.”
Recently, on Feb. 8, the WCHS Science Olympiad team competed at the Regionals held at the Germantown Montgomery College. They did not disappoint as they made history, achieving new heights with their personal and team scores.
“We placed second overall at Regionals this year which is an all-time high in [WCHS] history,” Leung said. “Last year, we placed third overall, so it is nice to see our improvement and hard work paid off, and it makes us excited for what more is in store for us in the future.”
There were partnered first-place finishes with members Myla Leung and Albert Gao placing first in the “Ecology” event, Ellen Liu and Yuzhi Liu placing first in the “Chem Lab” event and William Ma and Jayden Yu placing first in the “Electric Vehicle” event helping to contribute to a total of seven podium finishes, and there were many below fifth place finishes as well. The team’s collaborative effort as a whole and ability to persevere through challenges is what ultimately led them to their success.
“The hardest part of the competitions would be gaining the motivation to study, as well as waking up early to prepare,” WCHS senior and Science Olympiad member Joanna Ye said. “A lot of our members compete in more than one event so there is a lot of content to review and memorize, especially for some events, like disease, where you are only allowed to bring one page of notes. Some events allow you to have binders but there is still a lot of studying and it takes a lot of work to put that binder together.”
Aside from the competitive side of the tournaments and the hardships members may face, there is also time allocated to encourage team bonding outside of the academic competition by having fun exploring the places in the surrounding area.
“We love to get boba from the local stores, and at the end of the day, we all gather together to enjoy a team dinner,” Ye said. “Last year, we did karaoke, and the week before this year’s Regionals, we attended an Invitational at the University of Pennsylvania and had the opportunity to visit a nearby illusion Museum.”
Work hard, play hard. This is the motto of the WCHS Science Olympiad team. However, it is not over for them yet. They are still working hard and giving it their all despite all the heavy weight of work they have from other activities, such as school work since AP testing season is approaching. Their resilience stands firm to end this year’s tournament season off right.
“We are now working towards preparing for States which is on April 5th,” Leung said.” “We placed sixth last year in the state of Maryland and are going to try our best to top our last year’s scores.”
