Set those DVRs ya philistines! Thursday at 8 p.m. on the National Geographic Channel, you'll want to watch Varun Mahadevan, Hayward resident and 13-year-old 7th grader at Fremont's Prince of Peace Christian School, competing against nine other students from around the country in the National Geographic Bee finals.
First prize: a $25,000 college scholarship, a trip to the Galápagos Islands, lifetime membership in the National Geographic Society, and the ability -- though not necessarily recommended to be acted upon -- to start every tenth sentence well into the senior years with "that reminds me of when I won the National Geographic Bee."
And as if you needed even a smidgen more incentive: The finals will be hosted by Alex Trebeck. National Geographic Bee: "What is awesome TV?" is your answer in the form of a question.
From the San Francisco Chronicle's article on Varun and the bee today:
The National Geographic Bee was developed by the National Geographic Society in 1989 in response to concerns that America's youths were ignorant of geography. Last year, the Department of Education reported that only half of U.S. fourth-graders could correctly rank, in descending order of size, North America, the United States, California and Los Angeles...
The geography bee is less famous, but arguably tougher, than the National Spelling Bee. It is co-sponsored by Google of Mountain View.
Brian McClendon, vice president of Google GEO, called the geography bee "one of the strongest education competitions out there."
Here's video of Varun pointing out some local and statewide points of geographical interest...