Four students from Cheyney University of Pennsylvania will travel to Washington, D.C. this Saturday, February 3, to compete in the National Qualifying Tournament of the 29thannual Honda Campus All-Star Challenge(HCASC), America’s premier quiz bowl for top HBCU students. The fast-paced buzzer competition highlights students’ academic prowess and ability to answer questions about history, science, literature, religion, the arts and pop culture.
The students that comprise Cheyney’s HCASC team are Meghan Sowersby (team captain), Stephen Adasonla, Kei Kebreau and Jesse Lucas. Sowersby, Adasonla and Lucas are students in the Keystone Honors Academy and returning members of the CU HCASC team. Kebreau is both a new member of the team, and the Cheyney University community, and holds a GPA of 4.0.
Cheyney will be among 65 teams competing for institutional grants and a spot in the HCASC National Championship Tournament (NCT) taking place in Los Angeles, April 7 – 11, 2018. In 2017, the Cheyney Team was one of the “Great 48” that advanced to the Nationals in California, and despite not taking home the grand prize, the CU team fought hard until the end.
The campus community can also help our students make it to nationals by vote. The ‘Get My HBCU to the NCT’ voting process allows teams to make it to nationals based on votes via social media. Voting is open to the public, and each voter is allowed three votes per day through February 5 at 5 pm EST. Register to vote, here.
The Honda Campus All-Star Challenge is a year-round program that includes campus engagement, intramural play, qualifying tournaments and culminates with the National Championship. In 1989, Honda established HCASC as a way to highlight and recognize the academic talents of HBCU students. More than $8.5 million in grants from Honda have provided support for scholarships, facility upgrades and other investments to improve the student experience. This year’s challenge features more than 10,000 HBCU student competitors.
For highlights from last year’s Honda All-Star Challenge, check out the video below that features our HCASC team captain Meghan Sowersby.