On Aug. 2, the Jamestown High School team from Williamsburg, Va., was named the champion of the 2019 National Conservation Foundation-Envirothon, an international environmental and natural resources education competition for high schoolers.
“I’d like to congratulate the Jamestown team and all of the teams for their hard work and dedication,” NCF Chair Steve Robinson said. “Their knowledge about environmental and natural resource issues, as well as their commitment to these areas, have shown me that the future of conservation is in good hands.”
The winning NCF-Envirothon teams are awarded scholarships and prizes, with the top three scoring teams receiving $30,000 in total, thanks to the support of Smithfield Foods, Inc. As the largest corporate sponsor of NCF-Envirothon, Smithfield donated a combined $120,000 to support regional, statewide and international competitions throughout the year. In addition to financial support from the company, Smithfield employees donated their time and expertise to the program, serving as volunteer advisors to lead training sessions, facilitate program curriculum, and coordinate activities.
Fifty-three teams across the U.S., Canada and China traveled to this year’s competition, hosted by North Carolina Envirothon, at North Carolina State University in Raleigh. Throughout the week-long competition, students demonstrated their knowledge on soils and land use, aquatic ecology, forestry and wildlife management through written tests and interactive stations featuring North Carolina’s natural resources. The teams also prepared oral presentations on this year’s current issue, “Agriculture and the Environment: Knowledge and Technology to Feed the World.”
The top teams from the competition are:
- Jamestown High School — Williamsburg, VA
- High Rock Home School — Davidson County, N.C.
- Carmichaels Area High School — Carmichaels, PA
- The Mount Academy — Esopus, N.Y.
- Oxford High School — Oxford, MS
- Spartanburg High School — Spartanburg, S.C.
- Shanghai High School International Division — Shanghai, China
- Paul Laurence Dunbar High School — Lexington, KY
The 2020 international NCF-Envirothon competition will be hosted in Lincoln, Nebraska, at the University of Nebraska from July 26 – Aug. 1, where students will be tested on the 2020 topic, “Water Resources Management: Local Control and Local Solutions.”
