The Tennessee World Affairs Council (TNWAC) Anne Smedinghoff Academic WorldQuest (AWQ) is the flagship youth education program of the Tennessee World Affairs Council and the national network of World Affairs Councils of America (WACA). High school students from across Tennessee are invited to play. TNWAC has also welcomed teams from other states who do not have a nearby AWQ program available.
The TNWAC AWQ program is named in honor of Anne Smedinghoff, a United States Foreign Service Officer posted at the U.S. Embassy, Kabul Afghanistan. She was killed in the line of duty in 2013 by a car bomb while an American team was delivering books to an Afghan school. Learn more about Anne Smedinghoff HERE.
WorldQuest is a team game testing high school students’ knowledge of international affairs. In the game, four-person teams compete by answering multiple-choice questions divided into ten engaging thematic categories (below). Academic WorldQuest is unique to the World Affairs Council system.
The Tennessee World Affairs Council organizes a TNWAC Championship Match and a practice match each AWQ season. The competitions are usually held in person at Belmont University. For the 2021 Championship Match and the practice round the competitions will be virtual events. TNWAC will collaborate with several other Councils.
The top-ranked Tennessee WAC finisher in the competition will be designated the TNWAC champions. However all of the TOP THREE TNWAC TEAMS will advance to the National Championship of WorldQuest hosted by the World Affairs Councils of America national office in Washington, DC in April 2021. The National Championship match will be a virtual event this year.
WorldQuest is a flagship program of the World Affairs Council’s education outreach efforts and is integrated with other elements such as the “What in the World?” Weekly Quiz — which sharpens students’ knowledge of current global events and the “Global Scholars Diploma” program.
Plans for 2020-2021
For both the Practice Match and the Championship Match students do not need to be present with one another. We will make provisions for students to participate as a team but from separate locations.
TNWAC/Regional Practice Match, Sunday, February 7, 2021 at 1pm CT
TNWAC/Regional Championship Match. Sunday, March 7, 2021 at 1pm CT
Held as part of a regional competition including WACs from New Hampshire, Vermont, Maine, Illinois and New York. (TNWACs top three teams will advance.) The program will include:
Half-time Speaker. An innovation this year is for a speaker to deliver remarks to the teams during the match half-time break. Our friends at the Maine WAC have arranged for Dr. Karim Haggag, co-managing editor of the Cairo Review of Global Affairs, Professor of Practice in Global Affairs, and the Director of the Middle East Studies Center at the American University in Cairo. [Bio]
Prizes
Overall first and second place winners from the TNWAC/Regional match on March 7th.
CIEE High School or Gap Year Program scholarship
About CIEE
CIEE’s mission is to humanize international relations and foster peace through international education and exchange programs that promote intercultural understanding. We strive to increase global harmony and stabilityby helping individuals learn to embrace people different from themselves and ideas different from their own. We prepare future leaders who will be able to communicate across cultures to tackle issues confronting our globally interconnected and multicultural world.
Program details: CIEE.org
National Championship Match. The World Affairs Councils of America will host a national match among many of the 90+ WACs from around the country. The Championship Match will be a virtual event.
Prizes. National Championship Match – TBA
Registration
Study Guide
Here is the Study Guide that provides the topics and reference materials used in the TNWAC practice match and championship match, except for the “Current Events” questions. Current events questions are drawn from the “What in the World? Weekly Quiz.” Get the quiz by signing up for the TNWAC newsletter list on our home page.
For more information on TNWAC’s Anne Smedinghoff Academic WorldQuest (AWQ) program contact Catherine Kelly, Education Outreach Coordinator at < worldquest@tnwac.org >
THANKS TO OUR PARTNERS IN GLOBAL AFFAIRS AWARENESS AND EDUCATION OUTREACH
THE MISSION of the nonprofit, nonpartisan Tennessee World Affairs Council is to promote international awareness, understanding and connections to enhance the region’s global stature and to prepare Tennesseans to thrive in our increasingly complex and connected world.
THE VISION of the Tennessee World Affairs Council is a well-informed community that thinks critically about the world and the impact of global events.