In their first year as part of the Private School Interscholastic Association, five St. John’s Episcopal School students have qualified for state.
The five are 11-year-old sixth-grader Grant Crutcher, 12-year-old seventh-grader Miali Sanchez, 14-year-old eighth-grader David Furlow, 14-year-old eighth-grader Elijah Munoz and 9-year-old fourth-grader Gavin Ruiz. They will head to state competition April 13 in Houston.
Furlow competed in maps, graphs and charts, Crutcher was in science, Munoz in on-site drawing and music memory, Sanchez in science and on-site drawing, and Ruiz in art memory.
Everything is timed. For on-site drawing, Munoz said they put an object in front of you and you’re supposed to draw it in 45 minutes.
Furlow said the charts, graphs and maps varied, but they had a map of an area with a certain bird species, for example.
“Some other parts of the test they were talking about the economy in the U.S. … what they sell. It also talked about I remember in Africa what was the largest killing disease,” Furlow said.
Head of School Heather Kirk said this was the first time St. John’s has competed in PSIA. Formed in 1997, PSIA has more than 150 schools that participate in the organization.
“Administered by thousands of volunteers, PSIA now provides an extracurricular academic program for private, parochial, charter, and home-school students in grades 1-8,” the website says. “The curricula includes 20 skill categories, producing 62 grade-level appropriate contests: Art, Calculator Applications, Creative Writing, Dictionary Skills, Impromptu Speaking, Information Skills, Listening Skills, Maps, Graphs & Charts, Mathematics, Modern Oratory, Music Memory, Number Sense, One-Act Play, On-Site Drawing, Poetry/Prose Interpretation, Ready Writing, Science, Spelling, Storytelling, and Vocabulary.”
Kirk said students competed in 11 of the categories, 26 students competed with students from All Saints Episcopal School in Lubbock and Midland Christian School. The local contest was hosted by Midland Christian.
She estimated that the larger schools brought about 65 students each.
“Only three from each school can participate in each category … so we had … three in science for sixth grade, three in science for seventh grade and then the top two will advance to the state meet,” Kirk added. “So out of the 26 students, these five students advanced to state. Elijah advanced in two areas, music memory and on-site drawing. He actually competed in four different events; two at the same time.”
“Miali advanced in on-site drawing and science. David advanced in maps, graphs and charts and Gavin advanced in art memory,” she said. “Grant Crutcher qualified in science.”
Kirk said they practiced nearly all year and their teachers helped out.
To prepare for state, Munoz said he is studying a lot more.
“I’m confident in the music memory category because there’s no new material. They give you everything that they could pull from and as long as you study that, you can’t get thrown a curve ball or anything,” Munoz added.
Ruiz said he made cards for the artist paintings and there are about 29 of them.
Kirk said they have to know the artist and the piece and they have to spell it correctly.
She added that art and music memory also have an objective test.
Sanchez said she feels honored to have made it to state.
“I feel really proud of myself. It’s an honor to do this,” she added.
Sanchez said she has been doing a lot of preparation for state.
“For the science I’ve been studying a lot more, and for the on-site drawing, I also like to practice my drawing a lot more,” she added.
Kirk noted that the competition is very challenging.
Coach Keith Crutcher said they probably had 60 to 70 percent of kids drop out.
“The science is a lot harder, especially because in middle school it’s sixth, seventh and eighth. Some are base level, like fourth-grade science,” Grant Crutcher said.
Ruiz said he wished they had given them more room to write.
“Because there there was like, Mondrian’s piece. I was hoping not to call that one. … It was composition with large blue plane,” Ruiz said.
Kirk said St. John’s has after-school gifted and talented classes for those who qualify.
“But I also wanted to broaden our horizons and have something more academic and PSIA came up and we are so excited. It’s a lot of work. We have volunteers that have come in and helped coach the different areas we’ve worked on in math. We’ve worked in storytelling and creative writing. The middle schoolers, they did a lot in their classroom just working with the science. Maps, graphs and charts where you looked at old tests. David Mac looked at old tests to see what to expect, because it’s not just maps and graphs. It’s all about economics. … We’re hoping next year to expand and participate in even more of the contests and I think we surprised Midland Christian and All Saints,” Kirk said.
The students said they would recommend their peers try out the competitions, but it is a lot of work.
“But I think you become a better student, more well-rounded by doing this,” Kirk said.
Sanchez said what she has learned will help her do better in these subjects.
“It can help my study skills … I’m not really much of a studious person, but I think this should make it go better,” she added.
Keith Crutcher said this is a really good group of kids.
“It’s more like a family than we are students (and) teachers. It’s more of a closer relationship,” Keith Crutcher said.
Kirk is glad she found PSIA.
“I’m very glad. It was a lot of work … on the adult side, on the organizing side; in organizing the volunteers because we had to have so many volunteers, and it’s run by volunteers. They had graders. Coach Crutcher was a grader. They had contest directors that had to follow the rules so it would be fair across the board for each contest and each student …,” she added.
