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Amazing
Kids
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Caitlin Snaring, 15, knows her world as well as anyone.
The Redmond, Wash. (pop. 45,256), whiz kid can recite the names of nearly every city, mountain
range and river on the planet, and last year she used her voluminous knowledge to win the 19th
annual National Geographic Bee.
T really liked finding out how cities came to be," says Caitlin, who was 14 when she won the
competition last May. “I studied languages, religions, multiple atlases, two college textbooks
on physical geography and the National Geographic magazines” to prepare for the contest in
Washington. D.C.
Two years before the competition, her mother, Traci Snaring, who had home-schooled her
daughter since kindergarten, told Caitlin about the bee. Without hesitation, Giitlin said she
wanted to participate. Together they selected some books, including a study guide for the
National Geographic Bee. Caitlin read the materials, typed up the facts she thought pertinent,
added maps and organized the information into 10 three-ring binders.
"She was never without her books,” her mom recalls. "Whether we were at her brother's
baseball games or she was riding in the car, she was studying.”
Caitlin, whose interest in geography grew out of her love of travel, estimates that she studied
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3,500 hours, about five hours a day for two years to prepare for the
competition. The first year Caitlin competed, she was eliminated in
the preliminary round. Undaunted, she continued studying and even
dreamed about winning the competition open to fourth- through
eighth-graders.
Last May, during the second day of the national finals, with only 10
contestants remaining, Caitlin and her peers sat around a wooden table
in a room at the National Geographic Society headquarters, popping
bubble wrap to calm their
nerves before taking the stage in
Grosvenor Auditorium.
During the championship
round, host Alex Trebek posed
che question: "A city that is
divided by a river of the same
name was the imperial capital of
Vietnam for more than a century.
Name this city - which is still
an important cultural center.”
Caitlin answered: "Hue.”
When she heard her challenger, Suneil Iyer of Olathe, Kan., scratching
his marker on a paper card, writing a word that had many more than
three letters. Caitlin knew she had won, becoming only the second girl
in history to win the competition.
“I wanted to show everyone how much I loved geography and
winning really topped that off” says Caitlin, who won 525,000 and a
lifetime membership in the National Geograpliic Society.
After winning. Caitlin was interviewed by Matt Lauer and Meredith
Vieira on Tlx Today Show, and one of her role models, Secretary- of State
Condoleezza Rice, autographed a photograph and sent it to her. The
gift from Rice was particularly meaningful for Caitlin. who aspires to
become a foreign diplomat.
"I want to go to different countnes and help them with tlieir trade
and prepare them for natural disasters.” she says. 'And I would love to
see all the places I studied.”
Last fell, Caitlin enrolled in public school so she could make more
friends and be around other teenagers. She’s in ninth grade now' ar
Interlake High School in Bellevue. Wash., where she’s doing well in her
studies and enjoying the structure of regimented classes. And while she
remains a geography whiz kid, she seems to have forgotten some of the
math she learned from her mother.
"Tnat’s because the memory drive in her brain is full.” her mother
says. ★
Story by Heather Larson of Federal Way. Wash.
Page 4
Five million students
participate in the National
Geographic Bee each year.
Fifty-five contestants who
win at the local and state
levels advance to the
national finals. The 20th
annual National Geographic
Bee is scheduled May 20
and 21 in Washington, D.C.
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