Tuskegee's Quiz Bowl team and Dr. Hayes holding trophy.
by Michael Tullier, APR, Tuskegee Office of Communications, Public Relations and Marketing
Tuskegee Beats Out 15 Other Teams
In mid-November (2018) Tuskegee University’s four-person quiz bowl team beat out 15 other collegiate teams to win its first-ever National Association of African American Honors Programs (NAAAHP) Quiz Bowl Tournament.
The quiz bowl tournament is part of NAAAHP’s annual national conference, where HBCU students participate in research presentations, a Model African Union, and debate and quiz bowl competitions. This year’s conference in Concord, North Carolina, was the organization’s 27th annual conference.
This year’s quiz bowl team was Tuskegee’s first to ever win the NAAAHP championship. It consisted of Mya Green, the team’s captain and a senior majoring in animal science; Robert Henderson, a senior majoring in animal science; Maurice Kendrick, a junior majoring in occupational therapy; and Kailah Trice, a sophomore majoring in sociology.
“Our team’s strengths lie in the fact that our students are so extremely disciplined. Quiz bowl competitions are filled with brilliant students. The great teams separate themselves by the amount of time and energy they are willing to commit,” said Dr. Worth Kamili Hayes, an associate professor of history who has coached the university’s quiz bowl team since 2015.
At recent tournaments, Tuskegee finished second in 2017 and third in 2016. This year, after defeating Morehouse College and Hampton University in round-robin gameplay, Tuskegee qualified for the playoffs as the No. 1 overall seed. The team defeated Jackson State University in the semifinals, and Southern University in the finals, to win the tournament championship.
“It was very exciting to compete with some of the best minds among HBCU schools,” Kendrick said.
“A lot of the topics we study in quiz bowl are relevant to the classes we are taking. So studying for competition helps me study for class too,” Trice added.
In addition to those students representing Tuskegee at the conference as part of the quiz bowl team, seniors Jade Stanley, a chemistry major, and Kyra Jenkins, a history/political science major, made research presentations.
Tuskegee's quiz bowl team has a proud tradition spanning nearly three decades. It has earned a reputation as a national powerhouse through its many wins at contests — including multiple semi-finals, finals and championship titles as part of the Honda Campus All-Star Challenge. The team is a component of the university's Honors Program, led by Dr. Sheena Harris, who is the university’s Director of Student Engagement Initiatives and an assistant professor of history.
The National Association of African American Honors Programs is a national consortium of HBCU honors programs that, since its founding in 1990, has promoted scholarship, professional development, community service and an appreciation of African-American culture. For more information, visit www.naaahp.org.
© 2018, Tuskegee University Writing
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