Verizon Pioneers Diane Rodger and Deb Foley recently participated in the LifeSmarts program. The Rhode Island program, called MarchSmartness, had 10 RI high schools in this year's competition. Grades 9-12 came together on March 2 at Rhode Island College to demonstrate their consumer and tech-savy knowledge in a competition which lasted the entire day. Working in elimination rounds, it came down to three teams. North Providence took the 1st place standing for the 3rd year in a row.
Deb and Diane attended a 2 hour training session a few days before the competition, but nothing could prepare them for the tension and excitement during the competition.
Deb and Diane were put in the "hot seat" as one of the three judges in each room. It was not an easy position to be in when an answer was needed to be decided on and could affect the outcome of the round or the tournament.
The students were all extremely well versed in their subject due to the ability to study mock competitions on-line as the result of a $3000,000 grant from the Verizon Foundation.
A $2500 local grant from the Verizon Foundation will help defray the costs of the competition and sending the winners to Orlando this April to compete with other winners from across the country. Pioneers in RI will be taking the LifeSmarts program "on-the-road by becoming ambassadors for the program and presenting it to schools throughout the state in an effort to get more school teams involved in this exciting program.
A fun time was had by all and we learned some things in the process. view more pics....