Gabrielle Arreglo is a sophomore at Glendale High School, she was born in Burbank, CA and has lived here all her life. She enjoys watching YouTube, scrolling through Instagram, reading the Bible, and playing the violin.
Gabrielle is also the team captain of the GHS Scholastic Bowl Team. The Nitros finished in second place overall last night, with a final score of 109 points, in a socially-distanced competition on the GHS campus. Crescenta Valley High School ultimately won the event with 120 points, Hoover High School had 108, and Clark Magnet High School ended up with 83.
With their second-place finish, Gabrielle and her teammates, Lilly Armstrong, Garo Gumushian, Natalie Glezen, and Alec Baghdasarians, will each receive a $250 scholarship for their efforts.
Gabrielle explained that Scholastic Bowl is “a district wide competition, [which] consists of two parts: an essay and trivia portion.” She said that the essay portion “occurs 1-2 weeks before the trivia night, where you have to write a persuasive essay about a controversial topic in a hour.”
Gabrielle stated that the trivia portion of the competition “is where the players have to answer questions from five categories: Fine Arts, Literature, Math, Science, and Social Science.” Players only have 30 seconds to answer math questions and 15 to answer any other questions. As for Gabrielle, her favorite topic is Fine Arts.
Gabrielle has been a member of Scholastic Bowl for two years. She was first motivated to being a part of the team because of the prestige of being a member, but now she works to glorify God and to make sure that the team and coaches’ time don’t go to waste.
Her coaches, Ms. Sarah Morrison and Ms. Kelly Palmer, “do so many different things: raise children, take care of their AP kids, manage other extracurriculars, but still invest money, resources, and lunches to schedule out weekends for us,” Gabrielle said. “It really shows that they care, and it’s very inspiring and motivating.”
The hardest challenge for Gabrielle as a captain this year was to prepare for the competition, because she wanted her team to learn using a specific program called Anki. However, this didn’t go as planned, because the team was just learning in different ways and she didn’t quite respect that. As time passed by, she learned how to trust her teammates.
As for the team, Gabrielle says they have been doing great. “I’m so blessed and could not have asked for a better one,” she said. “We have so much fun while still getting the job done. I’m glad I was able to work with this team during this school year.” The team is the big reason why Gabrielle loves the games. It has also helped her to improve in her writing skills, to learn about current events, and even to enjoy English.
If anyone wants to join the Scholastic Bowl next year, Gabrielle recommends it to everyone, although she especially mentioned underclassmen, because they have more time to invest and excel in enthusiasm.
Gabrielle hopes that once this pandemic is over, we’ll appreciate the people in our lives more, because she once didn’t do so. She sees herself in the future as a “biology major at a prestigious university.” She admitted, “I want to be a cardiologist when I grow up, because my brain is pretty good at absorbing information and cardiology really sticks out for me.”
Congratulations to this year’s GHS Scholastic Bowl Team!
