Pentathlon team learns academic, life lessons during trip to Anchorage

MATT NEVALA

May 09, 2008 at 11:21AM AKST

Once a year for the last four years, Chief Ivan Blunka School teacher Danielle Riha and her students have swapped their New Stuyahok classroom for a much larger learning area '97 the city of Anchorage.

Riha and the students make the trip to the state’s largest city to participate in the annual Alaska Academic Pentathlon, a competitive quick study of junior-high students’ aptitude in five scholastic areas.

This year, like those before, Riha watched in fascination as her pupils not only excelled during last month’s competition but also grew as young adults when immersed in Anchorage’s hustle and bustle.

"We worked out butts off getting there, and it’s great to see just the life experience everyone gets out of it," said Riha, who taught in Togiak before moving to Chief Ivan Blunka. "Every second of the trip we’re on the go, going somewhere or doing something.

"Middle school kids love to be active. We don’t slow them down."

Riha and Liz Tracy coached the team. Nick Gust chaperoned the nine-day trip. Students Makayla Walcott (captain), Leilani Walcott (co-captain), Lawrence Gust, Nicholas Christopher, Gabriella Andrew, Daniela Epchook, Joshua Gumlickpuk and Petricia Chunak finished fifth in the Pentathlon team competition, despite challenging with one less team member than the opposition.

"The team made me very proud, absolutely," Riha said. "We were competing against kids, not from villages, who live on the road system and have many more life experiences."

The Alaska Academic Pentathlon tests participants in essay, mathematics, science, speech and Super Quiz '97 better known as current events. Riha said the students began preparing speeches and studying specifically for the competition in September.

Raising $20,000

That’s impressive all by itself. But the Pentathlon and accompanying trip to Anchorage is important enough to the students that they raised $20,000 to pay for the travel costs and a long list of fun-filled, educational activities while there.

"It was easy," Makayla Walcott said. "All we had to do was sell stuff. It was fun."

Riha said the students earned nearly half the money running a restaurant during the annual Beaver Fest. They also sold jerky, fleece blankets and candy and hosted movie nights.

"The trip is very planned out, and we do as much as we can based on the fundraising," Riha said.

The Pentathlon took place April 17-18 at the Bayshore Clubhouse, located in an Anchorage southside neighborhood.

Working with the students and their families, Riha and the other adults planned the trip down to nearly the last detail. Other activities included a whale-watching cruise in Seward, a visit to a musk ox farm in Palmer and a viewing a stage production of "Cirque Dreams Jungle Fantasy" along with a backstage tour.

The group visited shopping malls and dined in nice restaurants. For some, Anchorage’s urban experience was their first.

"It can be amazing because a lot of (the students) have never been in an elevator or gone up an escalator," Riha said. "It’s frightening (for them)."

But it can be just as rewarding as medaling at the Pentathlon.

"One of the biggest things you see change in the students is how they interact with other people once in Anchorage," Riha said. "It’s custom in Yup’ik culture to look down when talking to an adult as a sign of respect. But they get to Anchorage and learn how to communicate with everyone, including other kids. They make friends with kids from all over the state."

Between the studying, speechwriting, rehearsing and fundraising, organizing the trip is an awesome undertaking for Riha and the other adults. Long before anyone leaves New Stuyahok, the teachers meet with parents.

"We have huge meeting to go over everything and have them sign waivers for everything (the students) can and can’t do," Riha said. "What can they do to their hair? What can and can’t get pierced?

"Parents come to the meeting wondering why we have to be face to face, and then it’s ‘Whoa, I never thought of that.’"

Riha said the students remained dedicated to the Pentathlon and the balance between fun and learning. But kids being kids and malls being malls, she had her ways of keeping the students in academic line if needed.

"Oh, we worked on the competition every single day," Riha said. "I would prep kids in the middle of the mall, make them say their speeches in the middle of the mall. People would stop, listen and clap at the end.

"I was constantly quizzing them."

Gold medal winner

The hard work paid off for eighth-grader Lawrence Gust, 14. He won the Pentathlon’s gold medal in varsity speech for the second consecutive year.

"I have to thank the coaches for planning the whole trip," Gust said. "The gold medal is at my house in a special place '97 in my mom’s room."

Gust also celebrated his birthday on the trip. He and co-coach Liz Tracy were the guests of honor at a Benihana birthday dinner.

Riha is leaving Chief Ivan Blunka School and hoping to teach in Anchorage next school year. She and Tracy are preparing Nick Gust to be the school’s next Pentathlon coach. All three were recently named to the event’s board and will remain active in the Pentathlon.

"As an educator, (the Pentathlon) is pretty far up there," Riha said. "It’s incredible to see kids go out of their comfort zone and just shine even if they don’t win a medal."

The Pentathlon rundown

Lawrence Gust won one of two medals for the Chief Ivan Blunka team at the Alaska Academic Pentathlon. He also finished in the top 10 in current events and varsity overall points.

Gumlickpuk, a seventh-grader, earned a bronze medal in honors current events. Andrew, (sixth grade) finished in the top six in Honors speech, and Epchook (eighth grade) did the same.

Chunuk (eighth grade) made the top 10 in Honors speech, Leilani Walcott (sixth grade) made the top 10 in scholastic current events, and Christopher did the same in scholastic math.

The Chief Ivan Blunka team competed against teams from Lower Kuskokwim School District, Fairbanks, Interior Home School, Galena, Glennallen, Kenny Lake and Yukon Koyukuk School District.

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Matt Nevala can be reached at (907) 348-2438 or toll free at (800) 770-9830, ext. 438.