There’s nothing better for 12-year-old Alex Koutsoukous to have made it to the Connecticut National Geographic Bee two times–nothing better, that is, except winning it in 2015. This year the Middlebrook 7th grader took the state title to advance to the national competition, which takes place May 11-13 in Washington, DC.
Of course, winning the state bee felt great. “I was elated! I think the expression on my face was a big smile on my face–I was actually smiling so much that it hurt when I stopped.”
He worked his way to the national competition step by step, winning his class geography bee, his Middlebrook 7-Yellow team bee, the school bee, and then earning a spot at the state bee by sailing through the qualifying test. At the state competition, he aced both the preliminary round questions and the final round of questions, which narrows the field of competitors down to only the kids who get a perfect score and answer all 10 questions correctly. Then, whoever wins the championship round moves on to nationals.
While he’s a confident kid as well as a very smart one–Alex speaks three languages fluently (English, Greek and Spanish)–he admits there was one question this go-around that almost stumped him.
“One of the hardest was in the preliminaries, I think it was the fifth question that I got. It was in the ‘Animals’ category and of course almost nobody is prepared for that. The question was, ‘Name the animal that lives in the Gran Chaco…’ — which is a grassland area in Argentina and Paraguay — ‘…that uses its long snout as a snorkel.’ They gave you two choices, the manatee or the giant anteater. Of course manatees don’t live in grasslands but I never heard of a giant anteater swimming. But I chose that and I got it correct,” Alex recalls.
Geography first sparked his interest in third grade, but it quickly became a passion. “We had a unit on geography and I was really into it. We had these quizzes where we had a blank map of the United States and we had to label which states were which. Then we had to plot each state’s capital. I really kept trying to get each one right, not just the approximate location but the pinpoint dot.”
Alex admits he does like to read the many atlases he has at home, as well as the geography books in his library, and he likes to draw pictures of countries. “I used to draw states, but I stopped eventually.”
Winning at each level of the competition is certainly an achievement, especially as Alex is younger than many of his other opponents. It’s made him a semi-celebrity among his classmates.
“My teacher was parading me around,” he laughs.
He has definitely made his school proud, according to Middlebrook principal Maria Coleman.
“Alex is a student who demonstrates talent, curiosity, drive, and humility in equal measure. All who know him agree that he approaches academic and extracurricular opportunities with infectious enthusiasm, and we are so proud of his accomplishments. We know Alex will represent Wilton and our state well at the national competition in May!
But lest anyone think that he’s a one trick pony, it’s important to point out that Alex also is a member of the Middlebrook Math Counts team, which competed at the state level after winning regionals. He has a hard time picking his favorite subject in school–“The ones I like the most are science, social studies/geography and French,”–and he also likes to draw and paint, preferring to work in oil paint. He also plays tennis, and studies Greek and Spanish.
As smart as he is, Alex is still a kid, one who gives a typical big-brother eye roll when his 9-year-old brother, Lukas, tries to steal the interview spotlight to talk about being a published author himself. “We got the story published in Creative Kids magazine,” he boasts and also mentions having written a persuasive letter to Wilton’s first selectman Bill Brennan to lobby for a dead end sign to be posted on his family’s street.
Lukas is excited to accompany his big brother to Washington, DC in May for the championships, and Alex is eager to take on the 53 other contestants, and he’s prepping hard.
“I actually read books on the countries–I have four in my backpack right now. I take online quizzes and I downloaded the Geo Bee Challenge App on my phone,” he says. He also has to study up on current events, as the bee might include questions on news, politics and culture, from anywhere in the world. He gets most of his news from online sources and some TV news, but limits what he does watch on TV. It’s easy to guess which channel is on most at the Koutsoukous house.
“National Geographic,” Alex laughs.