Local teen wins the Wyoming Geography Bee Regionals

Since childhood, Lovell teen Dagan Reuter has had a deep passion for geography and always liked learning new things. Reuter, 13, is a seventh-grade homeschool student at Sowing Seeds Academy and finished first place at the Wyoming Geography Bee Regionals at Big Horn Middle School on Saturday, April 5.

He now qualifies for the National Geography Bee, which will take place in Orlando, Florida, on May 23-25, where he will compete against other students nationwide.

Reuter said he first became interested in geography when he did geography puzzles during homeschool classes. He said a friend recommended to him to participate in a geography bee, and he went for it.

“I always liked studying geography,” Reuter said. “I remember I would do these puzzles when I first started homeschool, and I liked them, even though I did not understand them yet, and that is how I kept learning about geography. My friend Jackson told me about the geography bee competition at a cross country meet, and my mom and I found out it existed.”

Reuter said he was little bit nervous when preparing for the geography bee but also had fun competing against other seventh graders.

“I study every day, to be honest,” Reuter said. “I was a tiny bit nervous at the geography bee, but I also had fun. One of the toughest questions I had in the geography bee was about the Tigris-Euphrates rivers.”

According to Britannica.com, the Tigris-Euphrates rivers are in Southwestern Asia and follow a roughly parallel course through the heart of the Middle East.

Melissa Reuter, Dagan’s mother, said her son loves to learn. She said he credits his reading skills for his knowledge of geography.

“Lot of Dagan’s skills comes from his love for reading,” Melissa said. “When Dagan is interested in something, he digs in and finds out everything he learned. Honestly, he did not study for the geography bee because he already has this geography knowledge. Dagan had to do an on-line qualifying exam to attend the regionals and had to answer 50 questions in 20 minutes, and it took him eight minutes to answer all 50 questions.”

Melissa said her son is independent, always finds a way to do something and is willing to do what is asked of him.

“Dagan is good about being independent,” Melissa said. “I can tell him to do something, and he will do it. If he is interested in something, he finds ways to do it. He also likes history, and as part of his writing curriculum, I try to make something geography and history based.”

Dagan’s advice for kids his own age is that if you want to be good at academics, you must have a passion for every subject you like. If anyone wants information on getting their son or daughter to participate in future geography bees, visit the International Academic Competitions United States Division website at https://www.iacompetitions.com/event/wyoming-regionals/.