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<p>KINGSTON &#8212; All the moderator had to do was say &#8220;Nintendo&#8221; and 14-year-old Michael Strunk, of Shavertown, &#8220;slammed his hand down on the buzzer&#8221; and said: &#8220;Switch.&#8221;</p><p>Michael didn&#8217;t wait to hear the whole question about the gaming console Nintendo plans to release in 2017, but jumped right in with the correct answer. His three teammates from Good Shepherd Academy in Kingston agree such early hitting of the buzzer was a good strategy.</p><p>&#8220;We tried to do that a lot,&#8221; said Peter Khoudary, 13, of Dallas, who believes anticipating some of the questions helped the team take first prize among the 20 teams in a recent Young Scholars Program hosted by Scranton Preparatory School.</p><p>&#8220;If they mentioned Pompeii, we started thinking &#8216;Mt. Vesuvius,&#8217;&#8221; Peter said of the contest, which welcomed seventh- and eighth-grade students from public and private schools to a quiz show styled like TV&#8217;s &#8220;Jeopardy.&#8221;</p><p>Of course, some of the questions took longer to answer.</p><p>For example, 13-year-old Amelia Anderson, of Wilkes-Barre, recalled, she listened to a moderator mention cartoonist Charles Schultz, his comic strip &#8220;Peanuts,&#8221; and his character who idolized a composer. Nothing sounded familiar &#8212; until the moderator said the composer was deaf.</p><p>&#8220;Then I knew it was Beethoven,&#8221; she said.</p><p>The four scholars on Good Shepherd Academy&#8217;s team took turns competing because only three students were allowed to represent their school in each round.</p><p>When 13-year-old Jack Riley, of Kingston, the lone seventh-grader on the team, sat out the final round, the boy, who plays both piano and saxophone, knew the answer to one musical question was &#8220;canon,&#8221; but had to listen in quiet dismay as his team mates gave the wrong answer.</p><p>Jack was considered the team&#8217;s geography expert, and one of the highlights of the contest for him was when he correctly identified the St. Lawrence River as the border between New York and Canada.</p><p>Amelia&#8217;s fields of expertise were literature, grammar and science; Michael&#8217;s were history and pop culture; Peter&#8217;s were math and spelling. Peter is such a good speller, in fact, he represented the area at the Scripps National Spelling Bee in May.</p><p>&#8220;The math was absolutely challenging,&#8221; said Joyce Elston, a mathematics and social studies teacher who coached the team along with science and religion teacher Janice Ambrulavage.</p><p>The students recall having just 15 seconds to work out a problem that involved making a large purchase with a down payment followed by two years of monthly installments. How much money would you save if you paid cash upfront?</p><p>&#8220;We all had different answers for that,&#8221; Peter said.</p><p>The team went with Jack&#8217;s answer, which turned out to be the correct one.</p><p>Not all of their answers were correct, but from now on the team will likely be sure to remember Wellington is the capital of New Zealand and that a line about thinking of &#8220;six impossible things before breakfast&#8221; comes not from &#8220;Alice&#8217;s Adventures in Wonderland&#8221; but from Lewis Carroll&#8217;s other book, &#8220;Through the Looking Glass.&#8221;</p><p>&#8220;This is a great experience that helps them think on their feet,&#8221; Elston said, adding she and Ambrulavage urged their protegees to enjoy the contest and not worry about winning.</p><p>Still, it was nice to triumph in the end over the other finalists from Holy Rosary School in Duryea and Our Lady of Peace in Clarks Summit.</p><p>Amelia&#8217;s mom, Renee Anderson, said she was so proud to see the team win, &#8220;I was crying.&#8221;</p><p>Her daughter had prepared for months by answering trivia questions at home and using smartphone apps that taught her facts on topics ranging from United States presidents to bones in the body. The team practiced after school with their teacher/coaches, too.</p><p>&#8220;The way to prepare for this is trivia, trivia, trivia,&#8221; Elston said.</p><style>
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<div class="neCaption">Michael Strunk, Jack Riley, Amelia Anderson and Michael Khoudary hold their first-place plaque after the Young Scholars Program, a Jeopardy-style competition held Nov. 5 in Scranton. </div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo0>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/web1_scholars.withplaque.jpg</photo0><caption0>Michael Strunk, Jack Riley, Amelia Anderson and Michael Khoudary hold their first-place plaque after the Young Scholars Program, a Jeopardy-style competition held Nov. 5 in Scranton. </caption0><photoCredit0></photoCredit0></div><div class="neFile"><img class="neImage" src="https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/web1_scholars.inscranton.jpg">
<div class="neCaption">Peter Khoudary, Michael Strunk and Amelia Anderson, representing Kingston&#8217;s Good Shepherd Academy, faced teams from Holy Rosary School of Duryea and Our Lady of Peace School of Clarks Summit in the final round of the Scranton Preparatory School&#8217;s 21st annual Young Scholars Program. The Good Shepherd team took first prize in a competition that included teams from 20 schools overall. </div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo1>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/web1_scholars.inscranton.jpg</photo1><caption1>Peter Khoudary, Michael Strunk and Amelia Anderson, representing Kingston&#8217;s Good Shepherd Academy, faced teams from Holy Rosary School of Duryea and Our Lady of Peace School of Clarks Summit in the final round of the Scranton Preparatory School&#8217;s 21st annual Young Scholars Program. The Good Shepherd team took first prize in a competition that included teams from 20 schools overall. </caption1><photoCredit1></photoCredit1></div><div class="neFile"><img class="neImage" src="https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/web1_scholars1.jpg">
<div class="neCaption">Teachers Joyce Elston, left, and Janice Ambrulavage, right, coached the Good Shepherd Academy team, which consisted of seventh-grader Jack Riley and eighth-graders Amelia Anderson, Michael Strunk and Peter Khoudary. </div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo2>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/web1_scholars1.jpg</photo2><caption2>Teachers Joyce Elston, left, and Janice Ambrulavage, right, coached the Good Shepherd Academy team, which consisted of seventh-grader Jack Riley and eighth-graders Amelia Anderson, Michael Strunk and Peter Khoudary. </caption2><photoCredit2></photoCredit2></div></div>
<div class="metaInfo"><subheadMeta>Team from Good Shepherd Academy takes top prize in scholarly competition</subheadMeta></div><div class="metaInfo"><bylineMeta><p><strong>By Mary Therese Biebel</strong></p><p>mbiebel@www.timesleader.com</p></bylineMeta></div><div class="metaInfo"><shirttailMeta><p>Reach Mary Therese Biebel at 570-991-6109 or on Twitter @BiebelMT</p></shirttailMeta></div>

Good Shepherd Academy team wins Young Scholars competition