A Blair Oaks student group beat out 12 others teams to capture the Missouri State LifeSmarts Championship by successfully fielding questions about real-life marketplace issues in Jefferson City in February.
The win means that the Blair Oaks' FCCLA Team - the acronym stands for Family, Career and Community Leaders of America - will advance to the national championship held in Seattle in mid-April.
LifeSmarts is a consumer education competition that challenges teens in grades 9-12 with questions about personal finance, health and safety, the environment, technology and consumer rights and responsibilities. As part of the game show-style competition, the teens are peppered with dozens of questions they have prepared for ahead of time with practice quizzes they take online.
Unlike in Quiz Bowl - a similar Jeopardy-like program that tests kids on their academic acumen - LifeSmarts focuses on information that students can use to help navigate the world. The questions also encourage students to read the newspaper and pay attention to current events.
For example, they might be asked questions such as: What do people pay on April 15? What does OPEC stand for? What does the term, "VOIP," refer to?
Eight students will be traveling to Seattle to compete. They are: Matthew Maason, Ashley Forck, Luke Dyer, Kyle Schulte, Kellie Fredendall, James Reinkemeyer, Karlie Reinkemeyer and Kerstin Peterson.
Coach Linda Cumpton, who teaches family and consumer science at the school, will be accompanying them. Her five years of experience has helped her coaching, but she said the real edge is her students' willing to practice.
"We've just been doing more practicing," James Reinkemeyer agreed.
Cumpton said the program focuses on useful information.
"I think why these kids do so well is (the information) is so practical and they can apply it to today," she said.
Although the FCCLA team is going to be representing Missouri in the national championship competition, all of Blair Oaks' students performed well at the state level.
The school district's middle school team also won state and so did the high school's Future Business Leaders of America (FBLA) team. But to advance to nationals required success both online and at the state level, which the FCCLA team accomplished.
Cynthia Sullivan, who coaches the middle schoolers, said it was exciting - and unusual - for all of Blair Oaks teams to win state.
Although her students are too young to go to the national competition, the state-level experience will help them when they are older.
Eighth-grader Hannah Hughes, who captained the middle school team, used to be shy and nervous during competitions. Not anymore.
"It helps with being on stage," she said. "Because you just have to get over it."