Quartet of UMES Students to Compete in Honda Campus All-Star Challenge National Championship Tournament in California
L-R: Essence Coley, Jossie Gates, coach Earl Holland, Jasmine McKinnie, Jovahn Lewis / Image courtesy UMES
A group of UMES students will represent the University next month in a trivia competition sponsored by the Honda Motor Company. This is the third consecutive year that UMES will be represented at the Honda Campus All-Star Challenge National Championship Tournament, which is exclusively for students of HBCUs across the country. Each team of 4 will go head-to-head in a battle of scholastic skills, answering questions on a range of topics. The tournament will be held in Torrance, California, April 11th through 14th.
Additional information from UMES:
Of the 32 teams competing more than $500,000 in grants, this year’s UMES team will be the only HBCU from the state of Maryland and the only one from the Delmarva Peninsula competing in the event. Â
This year’s UMES varsity team includes captain and senior computer science major Jossie Gates of St. Louis, Mo.; junior agribusiness major Essence Coley of Bowie, Md.; junior biochemistry/pre-med major Jasmine McKinnie of Tampa, Fla.; and freshman aviation science major Jovahn Lewis Jr., of Sterling, Va. The UMES team will be one of 32 HBCUs vying for a $100,000 grand prize from the Honda Motor Company.
This year’s tournament will take place from April 11-14 in Torrance, Calif. UMES earned its way into the tournament following a strong performance at Honda’s National Qualifying Tournament held at Virginia State University on Feb. 21. UMES is the only HBCU representing Maryland at this year’s national championship.
“Since we started working with this group in the fall, we saw the potential in this team and what they could be,” said Earl Holland Jr., one of the team’s coaches and UMES public relations director. “These students are competitive, selfless, and have shown that they can rise to the occasion when called upon.”
Since it began competing in the event in the 1989-90 academic year, UMES has earned a cumulative $145,000 in grants, including $6,000 in each of the past two years. The University’s best single-season performance was during the 2003-04 school year, when it came home with $26,000 as national runner-up.