The Eleventh Annual Breakwater GeoBee!

7th and 8th grade students prepare to compete in the preliminary round of the GeoBee on January 9th.

Breakwater wholeheartedly believes in immersing students in a celebration of geography, travel, and finding wonder in the world and its inhabitants. This is why we adventure so much. This is why we take trips to Costa Rica every year, to the White Mountains, to Mount Desert, to New York City. Breakwater has always found joy in learning about and celebrating culture, diversity, landscape, and language. One way we honor this kind of work is by offering a chance for students to participate in the National Geographic GeoBee. We know these passions likely rub off on our students because, 13 years ago, the idea of even having a Geography Bee at Breakwater did not come from one of our teachers; It came from a 4th-grade student.

Breakwater has been participating in the GeoBee since 2007 when a then fourth-grader named Eamonn, who was passionate about geography, approached Tom Fisher to get involved. Since then, Breakwater students have wowed us with their knowledge of the world. We love watching them grow as they step outside their comfort zones to participate and answer challenging questions in front of their community.

This year, the GeoBee began with a preliminary round on January 9th. Twenty-two students in grades 3-8 chose to participate. Of those twenty-two students, ten qualified to compete in the final round that took place on January 23. The final round was exciting and intense and eventually ended in a nail-biting championship round with two final competitors. With one tie-breaking question about Laos, Kieran, a fifth-grade student took his place as the newest school champion. After taking a qualifying test, Kieran will join other school champions from Maine at the state finals in March.

Kieran, moments after winning the title of Breakwater’s GeoBee school champion.

We were able to track down that fourth-grade student whose idea it was to bring the GeoBee to Breakwater thirteen years ago, and he agreed to answer some questions for us. Eamonn is now a Syracuse graduate living in Boston, working as an analyst in the banking industry. Check out his brief interview below:

What inspired you to bring the Geobee to Breakwater?

I remember watching the bee on television in fourth grade and realizing how great it would be to bring the event to Breakwater. Not to knock spelling bees, but geography bees really require and emphasize that participants need a broad understanding of the world around them, with a focus on learning the context of the world to help guide participants to correct answers rather than just memorizing specific words and repeating them back. 

I had a sense that this type of competition would fit incredibly well with the interdisciplinary approach that Breakwater takes to learning. Luckily Tom Fisher agreed and he led the charge to get our bee up and running with robust participation from grades 5-8. 

Tell us a little bit about your experience competing in the Geobee.

Competing at the school and state levels of the geography bee was a great experience. Especially at the state level it was great to represent Breakwater. At the school level it really grew to become an entertaining community event and it was very rewarding to see younger students become more and more involved by the time I competed in my final bee in eighth grade. 

Has your love of history and geography continued now that you've gone beyond the Breakwater?  What have these experiences led you to do?

First and foremost the lessons learned at Breakwater inspired a strong interest in reading history books, biographies, and travel memoirs. Out of that has sprung a love of travel and experiencing the world’s cultures and natural landscapes that capture the spirit of curiosity that Breakwater cultivates in every student. 

Tell us a bit about yourself now.  Where are you living?  What are you doing?

I graduated from Syracuse University with a degree in public policy in May of 2019 and I am now living in Boston and working as an analyst in the banking industry. Fortunately I still find time to get in a lot of reading and I am embarking on William Manchester’s authoritative three volume biography of Sir Winston Churchill “The Last Lion”. 

Eamonn presenting as a middle school student in the Breakwater Dan (left) and Eamonn today (right).

Congratulations to Kieran, and all of our GeoBee competitors for your bravery, perserverance, and continued love of geography. And thank you to Eamonn and to our entire Breakwater community for constantly putting high value on learning about the world and celebrating education in all its forms.