Making it into a national event is a pretty big deal. It’s an even bigger deal if someone makes it into an international event. So by that definition, Longfellow student Alan T. is a pretty big deal.

Alan, an 8th grader here at Longfellow, has been invited to Quebec in February to compete in the International History Bee.  It wasn’t easy, though.

To make it to the event, Alan had to get into the semifinals in the National History Bee, which put him in the top 25%. Once contestants get into the semifinals, they are automatically registered in the International Bee.
To prepare for the Internationals, he is reading past questions from the bee, books, and Wikipedia.
Alan is delighted that he made it into the internationals.

“[I’m] surprised,” he said. “I didn’t think I would get this far.”

During the bee, the contestants use a buzzer system where competitors try to answer paragraph-long questions as quickly as possible. Alan should have no trouble with the competition, though; history is his passion.
“I think it’s fun to memorize [history] in general,” he said.

The tournament is coming up in February, so at this point, there’s not much for Alan to do but research and keep preparing. We will all be rooting for him to win, but even though it might sound cliched, just being invited is an honor; it’s not every year Longfellow is represented in an International competition.