Reading Olympics is an event hat takes place every year for elementary, middle, and high school students. They read books off a set list and compete in April and May by answering trivia questions about their books.
Freshman Joy Yang began participating in Reading Olympics in elementary school and continued through middle school.
“I’ve always been doing Reading Olympics–I really enjoy it. Especially at the middle school, it was really fun. So when we got to the high school, I was like, ‘There’s no real Olympics, so I’m going to make it because I can’t live a year without it,’” Yang said.
The Reading Olympics team was a collaborative effort of eight students, who competed at the middle school, and all pitched in throughout the year.
“Well, I found Joy, and she was trying to organize this so I wanted to help her. And also they needed more people too and I enjoy reading, so it was just a fun thing to do,” freshman Reading Olympics member Izyan Weljie said.
The team is small, but they contributed to help win a blue ribbon in this year’s competition.
“It’s a small community that’s growing. Everyone’s really nice, and I also like reading a lot, so it’s fun,” sophomore team member Kathleen Kelly said. The competition is judged uniquely to minimize a toxic competitive environment. Any number of blue ribbons can be handed out, depending on how many teams accomplish the fifty points needed to earn one.
“It’s pretty laid back,” Weljie said. “It’s not really that competitive…It’s just ifyou got a certain amount of points, you get a certain ribbon, but you are playing against another team, so you can steal points from them. So in a sense, you are going against another team, but it’s not really that intense.”
The club is working on establishing itself as a viable extracurricular option for students at Strath Haven.
“The environment is really chill—even though we read books to compete, we’re not forcing anyone really to read,” Yang said. “It’s like one book per person, just because we know everyone’s super busy.” Reading Olympics is also a good way to encourage people to read more.
“Well, I like that I get to read books that I’m not typically going to read, and see what other people my age are reading,” freshman team member Juliette Loyd said.
Though the club almost wasn’t able to compete, they managed to find two more members to participate, and they succeeded in their endeavors to win the blue ribbon.
“It’s just a really fun club, and I hope more people can join, even if it’s just to hang out and help out,” Yang said.
