Courtesy of Bowie State University
A campus trivia team is getting ready for a trip to sunny California, as Bowie State is set to participate in the Honda Campus All Star Challenge (HCASC) National Championship tournament on April 20-21 on Honda’s corporate campus in Torrance, CA. Bowie State qualified for the national championship during the HCASC national qualifying tournament in February.
This year’s tournament will feature over 30 teams from HBCUs across the country competing for the top prize of a $75,000 institutional grant from Honda and will be the first in-person championship event since the COVID-19 pandemic.
“We’re all looking forward to it,” said Dr. Shirelle Briscoe, Bowie State’s HCASC campus coordinator. “We had a dynamic national qualifying tournament performance, and that was a tease for being back face-to-face.”
Honda Campus All‐Star Challenge is a year‐round program celebrating Black excellence and showcasing the academic talents of top HBCU students from across the country. Four‐student teams face off in head‐to‐head competition and must quickly answer questions about history, science, literature, religion, math, the arts, pop culture, and sports.
Bowie State’s team features senior communications major Myles Moody, junior criminal justice major Annijah Simpson, junior computer science major Taj Smith and senior visual arts major Jamarie Bush. The team has been gathering three to four times a week for trivia study sessions and mock competitions to prepare themselves for the championship tournament.
“We’re a very unified team. We all bring something different to the table,” said Moody, the team captain. “We see strategies that work well and strategies we need to improve on.”
Bowie State is in the midst of scheduling a couple of scrimmages with HCASC teams from Howard and University of the District of Columbia. Beyond the preparation, Moody is confident that Bowie State has the right mix to perform well in California, and they’re looking forward to representing the university and bringing some trivia cash back to campus.
“Our eyes are on the prize,” said Moody. “We want to come back with something.”
