For more than a decade the Naples Council on World Affairs has sponsored an Academic World Quest (AWQ) competition for public and independent high schools and middle schools in Collier County. The objective of both programs is to promote student awareness of world affairs and of the role of the United States in the international political system.

See the Quiz and test yourself: 2019 Middle School AWQ Quiz.pdf

April 27 2019: NCWA-sponsored team from Gulf Coast High School participated in the National AWQ competition in Washington, D.C. Click here to watch the team's video of their weekend in D.C.

2019 Events

High School Academic World Quest 

The 2019 High School Academic World Quest competition demonstrated once again the diligence and knowledge of the region’s high school scholars.  On March 2, nearly a hundred students on twenty-four teams from Barron Collier, Golden Gate, Gulf Coast, Naples, Palmetto Ridge and the Community School of Naples battled it out for prizes and bragging rights in answering a set of tough questions supplied by the World Affairs Councils of America.  Topics included “How to Deal with North Korea,” “The Global Refugee and Migration Crisis” and focused question rounds on Qatar and Japan.
A team from Gulf Coast High School coached by Susan Soulard won the competition, scoring 75 of 100 on the difficult question set.  Teams from Naples and Barron Collier finished second and third. The Gulf Coast team will continue on to the National Academic World Quest Competition in Washington, DC, on April 27. All team members received certificates of participation, the top three teams were awarded medals, and Gulf Coast, the defending HSAWQ champs, returned the rotating trophy to their school. The winning teams, with their coaches, are pictured below. 

First Place Winners - Gulf Coast Team A 

(Left to Right) HSAWQ Chair Jim Schmotter, Josh Shelton, Michelle Stegawski, Taylor Steiner, Kaitlyn Kugel, 

Coach Susan Soulard 

Middle School Academic World Quest 

The 2019 Middle School Academic World Quest was hosted by the Community School of Naples on March 23^rd.  This year nine local middle schools participated with 38 teams totaling 155 students. The winning team this year retaining the trophy was Pine Ridge Middle School Team A with the outstanding score of 88 out of 100 points.  In second place was Oakridge Team A and in third was Pine Ridge Team B.  See the winning teams below.

First Place Winners -Pine Ridge Middle School Team A: (Left to right) MSAWQ Chair Robert Pendergrass, Enis Ljikovic, Akshaye Dadlani, Darshan Dadlani, Erik Japson, Coach Lisa Carraher

2nd Place Winner - Oakridge Middle School Team A:                3rd place Winners - Pine Ridge Middle School:

(Left to Right) Coach Laura Heard, Justin Wang,                       Chris Garcia, Robbie Hunter, Melvin Drury,

David Garfield, Bharath Ram, Cedan Traylor                              Anya Joshi, Coach Lisa Carraher