Students from North Carolina Central University will once again compete against teams from 47 other historically black colleges and universities (HBCUs) in the Honda Campus All-Star Challenge April 10–12 in Orlando, Fla. Now in its 22nd year, the All-Star Challenge is the nation’s only HBCU academic competition. Four-member teams from each school will field questions testing their knowledge of history, science, literature, religion, the arts, social science and popular culture as they compete for grant money for their schools. In all, more than $300,000 in institutional grants will be awarded.

After missing the first year of competition, NCCU students have taken part in the Honda Campus All-Star Challenge every year since. Their best showings were second-place finishes in 2006 and 2009. Last year’s team fared nearly as well, making it to the “final four.” In the past six seasons, they have won $68,000 for the university.

The competition will take place at the Hilton Walt Disney World Resort in Orlando. This year’s “Great 48” includes schools from Alabama, Georgia, Mississippi, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Illinois, South Carolina, Delaware, Florida, Tennessee, Louisiana, New York, Kentucky, Missouri, Maryland, Oklahoma, Virginia, Texas, West Virginia, and Washington D.C. The schools will be split into eight divisions and compete in a modified round-robin format. The top two teams from each division advance to the “Sweet 16” for a single elimination playoff competition. The final two teams will compete for the National Champion title and the grand prize of $50,000.

Daniel E. Clark, a senior majoring in computer science, is the NCCU team captain. His teammates are DeAndre Carter, a freshman art major, Julian Green, a senior political science major, and Kirkland Wilson, a senior biology/chemistry major. Their coach is Christopher Graves, assisted by Clayton Mack, special projects coordinator for NCCU’s Division of Extended Studies; both men were members of the 1997 Honda Campus All-Star Challenge Team. The faculty advisor is Dr. Wendy Rountree, associate professor of English.

Note: The team has practices scheduled at 6 p.m. today, and on Tuesday, April 5, and Thursday, April 7, in Conference Room 2002 of the H.M. Michaux Jr. School of Education on the NCCU campus.

More information

For more information on the Honda Campus All-Star Challenge and a list of the 48 participating HBCUs please visit www.hcasc.com/nct11/great48.asp.

HCASC Electronic Media Kit: www.epklink.com/hondaallstar

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