Cayman Prep and High School has maintained their winning streak as champion of the 11th annual KPMG Brain Bowl Academic Tournament, held at Hotel Indigo Grand Cayman on Wednesday.
Cayman Prep students Emily Ch’Ng, Zachery Garnett, Charles Player, Aleque-Benjamin Bennett and Dylan Levy snagged the winning trophy and crown for the third-consecutive year. The winning prize included a mini projector and a newly introduced $5,000 gift voucher to spend on school supplies. The team was coached by Lina Gibson and Megan Crean.
Triple C School came in second place, winning Fujifilm Instax cameras, followed by John Gray High School in third, winning smart watches for each team participant.
Close to 90 high school students from 13 schools in Grand Cayman and Cayman Brac were a part of the jeopardy-style, general knowledge competition, with question rounds focused on high school academic subjects, including Cayman culture and heritage.
Teams of five players from various high school grade levels entered, with KPMG offering resources on academic topics, guidelines and study tools to help teams prepare for the tournament.
Attendees looked on as students from Cayman Prep and Triple C went head-to-head during the final round. The competition came down to the final prompt: “Divide eight yards, two feet, eight inches by 5. Reduce your answer to its lowest terms”. The answer was 1 yard, 2 feet and 4 inches.
“We’re thrilled for the win,” Coach Gibson told the Cayman Compass. “The other schools were incredible. It was intense all the way through the tournament. So, just to have a win again and compete again is amazing for us.”
“The students were really nervous from the beginning, but they were excited just to be there. As the tournament progressed, and I think once they got into it, they settled into a routine and practice mode.”
She added that the tournament provided a good opportunity for students to research and learn more about Cayman. It also motivated them to work as a team.
“It’s nice to see other students from other schools, to socialise and get to know each other. Above all, this is for life and for the kids that are thinking forward as they move from high school to university,” Gibson said.
Innovation and digitisation
This year’s special guest speaker Chris Joseph, higher education leader and innovator at the International College of the Cayman Islands, spoke to the students at the Brain Bowl on the evolution of careers in education, medicine and tourism, as well as the future of AI and what the Cayman Islands job market may look like in the future.
“We still need people but what it means to be a person in the workforce is changing,” Joseph said.
“There’s a role for human beings but that role is going to change and it’s going to change fast, and we need to be prepared for that.”
He added, “a series of skills” are still needed in the years to come, including digital literacy, emotional intelligence, social intelligence, self-regulation and storytelling.
Strong competition
Kirsty MacGeoch, KPMG markets and marketing manager, told the Compass that the 11th annual Brain Bowl was “very competitive”.
“I’m really impressed with all of the kids and their knowledge. A lot of the students have been practicing for weeks so they could hone their skills, and it really shows. They’re very quick and knowledgeable,” she said.
DeAnn Blackman, manager of local talent development and corporate citizenship at KPMG, told the Compass, “Our main priority of this tournament is to bring the students together to meet their peers from different schools, to build new relationships, and to network.”
Blackman said the relationships these students build with their peers now could result in lifelong bonds.
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