Idyllwild’s Sophia Carver helps to bring home a decathlon win

By Ann Smith
Reporter

In our own backyard is the Western Center Academy (WCA), a charter school, offering middle school and high school education. Among one of their successful programs is the academic decathlon. While the academy is located in Hemet, of particular pride is Idyllwild student Sophia Carver. Sophia was part of WCA’s academic decathlon team. As a result of a win, the team is eligible to participate in the national decathlon.

WCA has a long record of successes going back to 2011. Their accomplishments include the areas of robotics, engineering, science and Ten80 Racing.

According to the Riverside County Office of Education, “On Saturday, May 1, WCA, Hemet Unified School District, received a 3rd Place Overall Team Award in Division IV with 39,013.1 total team points. Additionally, WCA was recognized by the United States Academic Decathlon (USAD) as the Division IV Rookie of the Year.”

The team qualified for the national competition of the USAD.

Sophia attended WCA all four of her high school years. When asked why she wanted to attend WCA, she shared that it was a joint decision by both she and her parents.

“I didn’t want to attend a large school,” she said. “I wanted to be in a smaller school.” While the mission of WCA is to prepare students for careers in science, technology, engineering and math, Sophia’s passion the last four years was her art history class.

“The instructor was so passionate and that inspired all the students,” Sophia shared.

This was WCA’s second year of decathlon participation. Sophia also made the team last year, along with seven teammates.

When asked how she felt about the experience, she related how she was encouraged by her English teacher. Preparing for the decathlon required a lot of work. All participants studied 10 hours each week with the supervision of two coaches, both English teachers. She feels that participating in the decathlon has made her more confident and more motivated. In particular, she feels that working with her teammates really motivated her.

As for her time at WCA, and her participation in the decathlon, she graduated feeling “more passionate about education.”

Sophia will be taking some time off after graduating last week, traveling with a group of other young people to Costa Rica, in a volunteer program operated by Raleigh International. According to Raleigh International’s website, they are a “youth driven organization supporting a global movement of young people to take action.”

Sophia hasn’t decided on where she’ll attend college or what her major will be. She is looking forward to “an opportunity to explore places outside of Idyllwild.”

Sophia, you are already a success and Idyllwild is proud of you.