Sarah Holland
Northern News Services

NNSL (May 14/99) - Zoltan Kalnay, a 15-year-old student at St. Patrick high school in Yellowknife, is on his way to The Great Canadian Geography Challenge in Ottawa, this May.

Kalnay began his trek to the national finals by first winning the classroom competition in January, which led him to compete for the school title. After being declared the St. Pat's champion, Kalnay proceeded on to the territorial competition, open to all junior and senior high schools and held on March 27 at St. Pat's. Kalnay's fellow competitor was Sarah Hannah, a Grade 8 student from Ecole St. Joseph in Yellowknife. Kalnay left victorious after a seven-five defeat over Hannah.

As the territorial champion, Kalnay receives an all-expenses-paid trip to Ottawa to compete in the national final, moderated by Alex Trebek of the television quiz show Jeopardy!

Participants from all areas of Canada will travel to Ottawa, and the number of challengers is decided by the representation by population method.

"There will probably be about 24 competitors in all, and they usually ask the same questions to all of us," says Kalnay, who is attending for the third time. "They take the top 10 and then Alex Trebek asks the finalists the questions. It goes down to five people and then three people and then the winner."

Kalnay will be travelling with the Alberta co-ordinator for the challenge, and is staying at Carleton University.

"It will be neat to be at Carleton, since my dad was a student there," says Kalnay.

The NWT co-ordinator is Carole Forget, who is also a teacher at St. Pat's. "This is a great experience for the kids and I hope more schools will get involved in the future," says Forget. "I wanted to get involved to help encourage the students here to participate. It's great that Zoltan, who I know from school, is having the opportunity to travel to Ottawa and compete in this challenge."

Kalnay will have to answer world geography questions as well as read graphs.

If Kalnay wins the national challenge, he will receive a $3,000 scholarship, a computer and a spot on the national team. He's already looking ahead to the first prize.

"I want the computer, so I can rebuild it and put cool stuff in it," he smiled.