Qualifying for this year's state National Geographic Bee for the second year in a row, Schmitz Park Elementary fifth grader Sean Keller will compete tomorrow in the state championship, to be held at Pacific Lutheran University in Tacoma.

The competition sponsored by the National Geographic Society challenges students in fourth through eight grades with geography questions. But, of the 100 state finalists, only one student will travel to the national championships in Washington D.C. May 23-24, which will also air on PBS. The national winner will be awarded a $25,000 college scholarship.

Describing the school competition, Schmitz Park Elementary School Principal Richard Mellish said, "There was really good competition this year. There were several students who gave Sean a run for his money.

"We have three rounds at the school level" Mellish said. "In the first round students are asked seven questions, and the top 10 students advance."

In the second round, which Mellish said is held at a school assembly, the 10 students compete against each other in a spelling-bee type format, where once they miss two questions they are out. The top two students from this round advance to the third and final round at the school level. Both students are asked the same three questions and answer on a sheet of paper.

"This year it came down to the very last question," Mellish said.

He said the winning question was, "Which country is bordered by the Gulf of Gdansk to the North and the Carpathian Mountains to the South." The answer is Poland.

After correctly giving the winning answer, the next step for Keller was a written test. From these test scores, the top 100 students advance for the state competition.

Although Mellish said he was not at all surprised Keller qualified again, Keller said, "It was hard; I was surprised I made it again."

Preparing for a few months now, Keller said he has a tutor that has been helping him prep.

"Once every evening my dad asks me some questions," the youth said.

Although Keller says math is his favorite subject he does enjoy geography as well.

"I'm always reading maps and geographic stuff."

National Geographic describes the competition on their Website.

"The contest is designed to encourage teachers to include geography in their classrooms, spark student interest in the subject, and increase public awareness about geography."

Mellish said there are several programs and activities for students at Schmitz Park that tie in important geography lessons. "The passport club is a program where students learn about maps and countries in the world. Every month parent volunteers test students on the countries of the month, which can be up to 30 countries." Additionally, Mellish said, "we have homemade class competitions we do in classes."

These programs seem to be helping students.

"It really helps generally knowing where every country is," Keller said. "I just really enjoy learning about this kind of stuff."

Lauren Gardner is a University of Washington journalism student and can be reached at wsherald@robinsonnews.com