Granada Hills Charter Academic Decathlon Team Wins State Competition

GRANADA HILLS, Calif., March 29, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Granada Hills Charter (GHC) has advanced to the United States Academic Decathlon competition after winning the state competition this weekend. The seven-time national Academic Decathlon champions earned a total of 54021.1 points, taking first place and sending the team to the national championship next month.

"The team wants to thank their coaches and parents for all their support. The students are looking forward to representing Granada Hills Charter in what will be a very competitive and tough national competition," says Brian Bauer, GHC executive director.

The theme of this year's Academic Decathlon season is "The Cold War," requiring students to study subjects within that context. Students compete in subject areas including science, literature, art, music, social science, economics, mathematics, speech, interview and essay.

This year's winning team of students is Dwaipayan Chanda, Eunice Choi, Joshua Choi, Rachel Heo (alternate), Chloe Hyun, Aroa Kim (alternate), Justin Kim, Hirusha Liyanage, Anthony Mercado (alternate), Jasdeep Sidhu, and Zorex Villadelgado, Jr. The coaches are Alina Lee, Linda Kang and Amy Contreras.

Students Dwaipayan Chanda and Jasdeep Sidhu received the PECG (Professional Engineers in California Government) Math-Science Scholarship.

Each school enters a field of students from the following GPA categories, - "A" students (honors), - "B" students (scholastic), and - "C or below" (varsity).

The GHC team competed against schools throughout the state of California. The United States Academic Decathlon begins on April 8 and culminates in an awards ceremony on May 1. The winner of the competition will be named this year's United States Academic Decathlon champion.

About Granada Hills Charter: Granada Hills Charter, the largest charter school in the nation, is an independent public school in the San Fernando Valley. A fiscally independent conversion charter school, Granada Hills Charter has a current student enrollment of more than 5,100 in grades transitional kindergarten through 12. Both programs, TK-8 and 9-12, have a combined annual student wait list of nearly 4,000. The School's student population is one of the most diverse, with more than 40 languages other than English spoken at home and over 60 nationalities represented. Over 50 percent of students are eligible for the National School Breakfast and Lunch Program. As a 501c3 non-profit benefit corporation, the School's Governing Board is the legal entity overseeing all school policy and its $60 million operating budget. The school is ranked "#1 Best Charter High School in California," "#4 Most Diverse Public High School in Los Angeles" and "#11 Best Charter High Schools in America" by Niche.com in the 2019 Best Schools rankings.

SOURCE Granada Hills Charter