While America’s athletes are going for the gold in Sochi, two teams of UMES students will be competing in trials for an “Olympics of the mind,” the Honda Campus All‐Star Challenge. The event takes place Saturday, Feb. 15 at Morgan State University in Baltimore.
The Honda Campus All-StarChallenge is a game of quick recall for students of America’s Historically Black Colleges and Universities. Now in its 25th year, more than $7 million in grants have been awarded by Honda to participating HBCUs and nearly 100,000 students in 22 states have participated.
“I am proud to say that UMES has made the cut twice in this competition,” said Dr. James White, team coach and UMES’ associate vice president of student life and enrollment management. “We intend to compete in this preliminary round and earn a spot to represent UMES with Hawk Pride at the National Championship Tournament in Los Angeles in April.”
Forty-eight teams from qualifying tournaments will advance to the National Championship, White said.
Over $300,000 is at stake this year, with the champion HBCU earning a $50,000 grant.
The 48‐team field will be announced Feb. 20 during a live webcast.
“Honda would like to wish good luck to all the HCASC teams attempting to qualify for the National Championship tournament this weekend.
The journey started at the beginning of the school year and has included long hours of hard work, practice and study, in addition to your regular academic course load,” said Stephan Morikawa, assistant vice president for corporate community relations, American Honda.
