In the spirit of Black History Month, Indiana University Northwest invited five schools to participate in their second annual Steel City Black Knowledge Bowl competition.
Antoine Hawkins, Group Scholars Coordinator at IU Northwest, admires how the Steel City Black Knowledge Bowl brings families and friends together to support each other in a fun competition.
“Today is an amazing experience for a lot of these students to get showcased and highlighted,” Hawkins said. “A lot of times we have events for the athletes, but this is pretty much our athletes for intellect. It’s a cool opportunity for them to show their family and friends the hard work they’ve put into this competition. They’ve been practicing since the beginning of the academic year.”
It took a lot of preparation from Hawkins, the judges, the sponsors, and the entire team that came together to make this event successful for the second year.
“It was an amazing effort by our team from top to bottom,” Hawkins said. “We had small teams last year when we first did this event, so seeing how it’s grown with a production team and additional students has been awesome.”
The competing schools for this year’s competition included West Side Leadership Academy, Gary Lighthouse College Prep Campus, 21st Century Charter School, Merrillville High School, and Thea Bowman Leadership Academy. Every school participated in two rounds with a 10-minute running clock to score the most points by the buzzer. The final round consisted of the top two performing schools in a 15-minute running clock battle.
Dr. Dorothy Frink, Interim Vice Chancellor for student affairs and enrollment management, views this event as a collection of the most memorable people and moments throughout Black History for these high school students in Northwest Indiana to learn about.
“The Steel City Black Knowledge Bowl is a way for our students to learn about Black inventors, scientists, and the gamut of Black culture,” Frink said. “We invited five schools to participate and feel empowered by learning about this history.”
More than 500 questions were prepared for the competition, which focused on topics such as the education system, science, health, politics, and sports. Frink believes this is a perfect way for these students to recap and celebrate what Black History Month is all about.
“It’s the best time to have an event like this,” Frink said. “This is intentional learning for the students. They don’t come into the event knowing what questions will show up, so they have to study their books for the competition.
IU Northwest appreciates being able to host the Steel City Black Knowledge Bowl, as it speaks volumes to what this means for the university.
“We are honored to host this event because IU Northwest was one of the first schools to start a minority studies program back in 1968,” Frink said. “This is a full-circle moment for us to dedicate events like this to our African American leaders.”
The event has been a major hit from the jump for how it has sparked a competitive nature between all the schools while being able to share a laugh with the judges and audience every so often.
“This is just the second year of doing this event, but we want to continue making it better every time,” Frink said. “West Side won the competition last year. They brought the traveling trophy back to present to us on stage so we can give it to the school that wins this year’s competition.”
In this year’s competition, the final round was a rematch of the two schools that made it there last year. West Side Leadership Academy and 21st Century Charter School went head-to-head once again, leading to the same outcome as last year. West Side Leadership Academy won the final round by a score of 285-160, becoming the first school to win in consecutive years.
Gary Lighthouse College Prep Campus walked away with a third-place finish in the competition. Thea Bowman Leadership Academy finished in fourth place, and Merrillville High School finished in fifth place.
For more information on IU Northwest, you can visit its website.
