Highline Homeschool Center’s Geography Bee winner Benjamin Salman has won the state competition and will be going on to Washington D.C. to represent our state in the National competition, hosted by Alex Trebek. Congratulations, Benjamin!

See full story from the News Tribune below:

Mapping his way to success

Benjamin Salman knew the answer as soon as he heard the question.

Novosibirsk.

Knowing the name of the largest city in Siberia made the 14-year-old homeschool student from Seattle the 2009 state Geographic Bee champion. He bested 102 other geography whizzes in grades four through eight at the competition Friday at Stadium High School in Tacoma.

“I look at maps all the time,” Salman said, explaining his knowledge of geography.

One map he remembered looking at was of Siberia.

“I saw this big city in the middle of the expanse of Siberia,” he said. He looked up the city and knew he’d never forget it.

Geography, however, isn’t his main interest. He spends most of his time playing the piano and composing music.

“I came not really expecting to win,” he said. “I hoped I would.”

“I knew he was capable of it,” his mother, Sarah McCord, said proudly.

Family genes might have helped. Benjamin’s mother is a former rocket scientist and an adjunct professor of mathematics at Seattle Pacific University. His father, Frank Salman, is a concert pianist.

The win means an all-expenses-paid trip to the National Geographic Society headquarters in Washington, D.C., to compete in the 22nd annual National Geographic Bee. The national champion will win $25,000 and a trip to the Galapagos Islands.

Five Washington state champions have become national champions, the largest number from any state, said Evy McNeal, who’s coordinated the state’s Geographic Bee since 1992. McNeal, of Raft Island, credited the state’s “good school system” for the state’s success at the national level.

Large photographs of the national champions were displayed in the theater lobby. They included 16-year-old Caitlan Snaring, who was one of the judges for the finalists’ competition.

Now a 10th-grader an Interlake High School in Seattle, Caitlan won in 2007, becoming only the second girl to be national champion. She also was the 2006 state champion.

Caitlan credited her national victory to having a plan of study. She created notebooks on continents, countries and cities, and made maps detailing rivers and locations of cities. The notebooks became her life. She studied them up to seven hours a day.

McNeal began Friday’s competition by introducing the 10 finalists as the “brightest of the bright.”

They paraded into the theater to the applause of family, friends, teachers and fellow competitors. They wore nervous looks and brown National Geographic Society T-shirts.

One by one they left after missing two questions.

Aidan Mathis, 14, from Anacortes Middle School in Anacortes, Skagit County, stayed with Benjamin until Siberia. Aidan came in second. He’d made it to the state competition four times. His previous highest finish was fourth.

His disappointment, he said, is that he can’t compete again.

Kyler Q. La Viollette, 12, a home-school student from Mount Vernon, Skagit County, took third place. He said he’ll be back.

For his win, Benjamin picked up a certificate, $100 and a world atlas.

He also got a helium-filled balloon of the Earth.

“I’m taking home the world,” he said.

Mike Archbold: 253-597-8692