WKU News

Top finishers in the 2018 Kentucky Geographic Bee were (from left) Case Grillot of Highlands Middle School, Jayden Morris of Calloway County Middle School and Taylor Smith of Breckinridge County Middle School.

Case Grillot of Fort Thomas, an eighth-grader at Highlands Middle School, took top honors at the 2018 Kentucky Geographic Bee on Friday (April 6) at WKU’s Knicely Conference Center in Bowling Green. 

Second place went to Jayden Morris of Calloway County Middle School in Murray. Third place went to Taylor Smith of Breckinridge County Middle School.

Eighty-three students from around the state participated. The competition was hosted by Western Kentucky University’s Department of Geography and Geology whose faculty, staff and student volunteers judged and moderated the competition.

The state winner received $200 and an all-expenses-paid trip to Washington, D.C., to represent Kentucky in the national finals of the Bee at National Geographic Society headquarters in May.  The National Geographic Bee is organized by the National Geographic Society. Cash awards were doubled this year to celebrate the 30^th year of the National Geographic Bee. 

Up to 100 fourth- to eighth-graders in each of the 50 states, the District of Columbia, Atlantic and Pacific territories, and Department of Defense Dependents Schools participated in state-level Bee on April 6. The final round, to be held at the National Geographic Society’s headquarters, will be moderated by journalist and humorist Mo Rocca and will be streamed at www.natgeobee.org starting May 24.

The national champion will receive a $50,000 college scholarship, a lifetime membership in the Society, which includes a lifetime subscription to National Geographic magazine, and an all-expenses-paid Lindblad expedition to the Galápagos Islands aboard the National Geographic Endeavour ll. Travel for the trip is provided by Lindblad Expeditions and National Geographic. The second- and third-place finishers will receive $25,000 and $10,000 college scholarships, respectively. For information on the National Geographic Bee, visit www.natgeobee.org.

Contact: Amy Nemon, (270) 745-3082 or amy.nemon@wku.edu