West High Scores High in Academic Decathlon Competition

Months and months of super quizzes and study sessions propelled West High School to place in the top three at Thursday’s Academic Decathlon Awards. West High finished in third place with 51,979.7 points. Additional honors went to West High student Molly Kim and West High Coach, Ann Cortina.

Molly earned the notable distinction as the top individual scorer in L.A. County, with a total score of 9,520 out of a possible 10,000. She also won eleven medals, eight of which were gold. Her gold medals were in the subjects of Art, Essay, Language/Literature, Math, Speech, and Social Science. Coach, Ann Cortina walked away with the Roberta Kordich Award for her commitment and dedication to her students. Ms. Cortina teaches Biology, Advanced Placement Biology, Biotech, and the Academic Decathlon class. She has been the AcaDec coach for nine years, with West High winning the first place position four times, “It is a huge honor because it (the Award) comes from my students. I am also fortunate to have the support of an amazing collaborative of fellow L.A. County coaches and their teams.”

The Los Angeles County Academic Decathlon is a colorful, rigorous two-day scholastic team competition that tests the knowledge and skills of high school students who compete against other school teams for gold, silver and bronze medals. Decathletes are challenged to use analytical skills, performance abilities and test-taking and writing aptitude in 10 events: Art, Economics, Essay, Interview, Language & Literature, Math, Music, Science, Social Science and Speech.