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June 21, 2002
Wise beyond their years
Kamloops, B.C., boasts two national geography champs.
KYLE BERGER REPORTER
Here's the scene: You're standing in front of a crowd of about
100 people with bright lights shining on you. As you try to keep
your mind focused on the topic at hand, quiz master Alex Trebek
poses the question, "Which U.S. state has rivers that flow
into the Pacific Ocean, the Gulf of Mexico and Hudson Bay?"
You write down "Montana" and, as you are the only one
who answered correctly, you are named the champion and become the
recipient of $3,000 in winnings.
Who and where are you?
No, you're not a contestant in the final round of Jeopardy.
You're 14-year-old Jacob Cosman from Kamloops and you've just won
the 2002 Great Canadian Geography Challenge.
Sponsored by the Royal Canadian Geographical Society and the Hong
Kong Bank of Canada, the Great Canadian Geography Challenge featured
22 of the most knowledgeable 12-to-16-year olds in the country.
Jacob shared some of his glory with another, even younger member
of the Kamloops Jewish community, 12-year-old Nathan Friedman, who
placed ninth in the national competition.
On his way to the top, Jacob first became the geography champion
of his school, then went on to win the British Columbia championships
in early April.
While he was proud of his accomplishment at the provincial level,
his victory left him with more feelings of fear than of excitement.
"Winning was really cool, but I was really scared because I
knew I would have to go to the national championships after that,"
said Jacob, who admitted to being surprised that he won the B.C.
challenge.
At the nationals in Ottawa, which took place May 18 to 20, 22 competitors
were narrowed down to a final 10 contestants after a series of more
than 80 questions. The final round, hosted by Trebek, comprised
15 questions.
As the winner, Jacob received a $3,000 education scholarship that
will be available to him on his 18th birthday. He also won an invitation
to the international geography challenge, to be held in Washington,
D.C., August 2003.
Jacob's true loves are actually chemistry and physics, and he has
won various mathematics competitions within his school district.
Geography was something he just picked up along the way.
"I've always like learning useless facts and my parents know
a whole bunch of stuff and are always talking about it so I just
picked that up," he said. "When I was little, I liked
looking through atlases and I still do."
"He'll probably have a career in science, but he's always been
a brilliant child," said Debra Cosman, Jacob's mother. "He
knew all the capitals of the world when he was seven and he's always
studying the globe."
Nathan finished second only to Jacob in the B.C. competition and
finished in the top 10 in Ottawa. Nathan actually qualified for
the provincial competition two years ago when he was in Grade 5
by becoming his school's geography champ, but he wasn't old enough
to compete until this year.
In the national competition, Nathan won in a tie-breaker to make
it into the final round. He was able to name Cape Spear, Nfld.,
as the most easterly point in Canada and continue on to his ninth-place
finish.
Nathan said that studying for such a competition was almost impossible
because there isn't any single text book that you can follow. However,
he has been studying geography for his own interests since Grade
4.
"I took an interest in geography because I was interested in
birds but I had no idea where some of the birds were from,"
he said. "So I started reading book after book and I was fascinated
with it."
Like Jacob, geography isn't Nathan's top interest these days, as
the study of classical music takes up much of his time. Nathan has
another year to qualify for the international competition in Washington,
which takes place every two years. But, he said he's already satisfied
with what's he accomplished.
"At the nationals, you look around at the people from across
the country and you know that you are the best of the best,"
he explained. "No matter what you place in the national finals
you can always say that you got to the nationals, so you feel pretty
good about yourself."
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