Schools

San Carlos Boy Wins California Geography Bee, Heads to Nationals

Tuvya Bergson-Michelson is going to Washington, D.C to compete in the National Geography Bee.

Some years ago, Tuvya Bergson-Michelson sat cross-legged on the floor outside his classroom, sprawled in front of him a map of the world covered with colored blocks, each color representing a different immigration pattern.

 He recalls a conflict with a classmate earlier in the day, and in his map he found solace, a sanctuary of geographical patterns and colors where he could escape.

 When it comes to geography, Tuvya describes his brain as functioning similarly to a Google search engine. His photographic memory categorizes using patterns and colors, making it possible for him to intake information, process it and display results.

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 Precocious and well-mannered, Tuvya can discuss geography for hours, and reads an Atlas with the same fastidious interest most 10-year-olds reserve for Harry Potter. On a recent Friday morning, Tuvya sat in his living room in San Carlos and recounted his entire journey to becoming the 2011 California State Geography Bee Champion, beginning with his very first globe.

 “I have no idea why it interested me so much,” Tuvya said about the globe, a Thanksgiving Day gift from his great grandmother when he was just 4 years old, “but it certainly did. I would just look at the globe and wonder about it. And then I started playing geography-related games. 'What if there was a war between Bulgaria and Romania?' I’d wonder, and then I’d turn to that page in the Atlas and start playing it.”

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 For most kids, the imagination is piqued and broadened by the fantasy worlds of Batman or Spider-Man, but Tuvya’s imagination has found plenty of material with the world he’s been given. And his ability to create games and memorization puzzles out of our geographical landscapes has brought him national attention.

 But his understanding of geography isn’t some magic trick, or some memorization gimmick. His knowledge extends beyond each country's physical landscapes and into their geopolitical make-up, their economic states, and even the types of animals they harbor. For Tuvya, geography is the foundation of which everything we know and see is based.

 When I asked him how he differentiates Belarus – chosen at random – from other Eastern European countries, he said, “Well, one unusual fact about Belarus is that it is often said to be the only dictatorship left in Europe.”

 He speaks confidently and without hesitation or doubt, but his nervous and repetitive tying of a rubber band around his socked foot - a sign of a typically anxious fourth-grader – brings his actual age back into focus, making his adroit mastery of the subject all the more astonishing.

 And yet, for all of the places Tuvya has studied and visited in his mind, his actual travels, he said, remain mostly domestic, save for only one trip to Italy. Or, as his mother put it, perhaps more accurately, “Only? You should consider yourself lucky. You’re only 10 and you’ve already been to Rome!”

 The family has visited 13 states and Washington, D.C. When Tuvya was 4, his parents took him to Utah so he could see how the mountains on the globe translated in the real world.

 Tuvya attends a progressive elementary school known as The Nueva School in Hillsborough. The school puts a large emphasis on creativity and emotional growth and less on the constant testing found in most other schools, an approach Tuvya’s mother, was grateful for.

 “We are so lucky to have such wonderful teachers and to be part of such a great school with such a dedicated faculty,” she said. Occasionally mom would interject, adding some appreciation for the school or a quick anecdote about Tuvya, before allowing Tuvya to take over.

 Every year the school holds a school-wide geography bee, an event Tuvya became eligible for when he reached the fourth grade. But he’d been eyeing the event for three years prior, and had attended the competition twice before—not so much for scouting purposes, more for some good old-fashioned fun.

 A fourth-grader among about 15 students, most older, Tuvya sat at a desk near the front of the humanities room where the school-wide bee was held this past January and moved up from round to round, answering questions, as he remembers, of “medium difficulty.”

 “What airport that serves a city just north of Chicago has a code of MKE?”

 Easy, he thought. There are only two major cities that start with “M” in the Midwest: Minneapolis and Milwaukee, and Milwaukee has a “K” in it. Problem solved.

 After eight rounds of questions, Tuvya won The Nueva School geography bee, and soon after, became one of the top 100 highest scorers on a statewide written test, qualifying him to participate in the state bee in Sacramento, news he received in front of all of his peers to cheers and adulation.

 “The classroom just exploded when they announced I made it to the state competition,” Tuvya said.

 In April, the whole family—Mom, Dad, Tuvya, and his little brother—packed themselves into their minivan and headed north for the state capitol. Geography games were played along the way, something that has become the norm in the Bergson-Michelson family.

 The statewide bee—a competition of 103 students from grades 4-8—drew the attention of television news crews and the Sacramento Bee. The children stood on stage, most clad in their brown National Geography Bee t-shirts, while parents waited nervously in the audience, their nail-bitten fingers snapping photos.

 “I was having a heart attack, I was such a nervous wreck,” admitted Tuvya’s mom. “It’s been so interesting for me to watch him go through this process.”

 Round after round passed slowly. Different methods were used for different rounds. Some required verbal answers. Others asked the students to write their answers on a board.

 The Kakapo, the flightless parrot, resides in the Stewart Islands and Fjordlands of what country?

 Tuvya had no idea. He knew there were fjords in Norway, so he wrote down Norway. He was wrong.

 His incorrect answer left him teetering on eliminations precipice. He became one of seven kids to compete for three available slots that would allow him a second chance. The next round had the seven of them matching monuments with cities: The Golden Gate Bridge, Mount Rushmore, the Statue of Liberty. Tuvya knew them all. In fact, those were pretty easy. And suddenly, he was back.

 After three hours of intense pressure, it was down to two. Tuvya, a 10-year-old fourth grader, stood beside 13-year-old eighth grader Thomas Horn of Piedmont.

 Tuvya describes Horn as gracious, and neat. For Tuvya, even in the most intense of moments, it never stopped being fun. It never was anything more than a hobby he loved.  He said he was too surprised by all of the excitement to feel any real emotion other than the surprise itself.

 “What predominant Muslim country uses the Rupee as its currency?”

 The two boys had 15 seconds to answer. Thomas wrote down Indonesia. A Muslin country, yes. But they use the Rupiah. Tuvya thought hard. He knew they used the Rupee in India, and Pakistan has separated from India. He wrote Pakistan on his card and held it up. He was right.

 With that answer, Tuvya became one of the youngest children ever to win the California geography bee and won $100 and a place in the national bee to be held in Washington, D.C. It will be May 23-26 and broadcast live on ABC.

 Each time I got through a level, since I thought I wouldn’t get through the preliminary rounds, I was too surprised to feel nervous. I was too surprised to ever feel excited. The surprise really took away all other emotions,” he said.

 While he waits for the big day, Tuvya has been doing what he does best: playing games about geography. These days, he’s been brushing up on African politics and the colonial boundaries drawn and the political implications they represent. Next week, he should probably move onto studying Oceania, just to be safe. Yes, Oceania sounds like great fun.


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