LOYAL. LOCAL. COMPLETE.
The Paris High School ACES (Academic Challenge for Engineering and Science) team recently completed its season by competing in the Academic Challenge state competition at Eastern Illinois University on April 15.
Academic Challenge is a competition run by EIU for high school students throughout Illinois and Missouri. Each student tests in two subjects chosen from biology, chemistry, computer science, engineering graphics, English, math and physics. The tests are designed to be very challenging and cover material typically learned in high school and first-year college courses.
Based on their scores, students can advance as individuals and/or as a team within divisions. Paris competes in Division 700 (schools with enrollments from 301 to 700) and earned the right to compete at state by advancing through the regional and sectional levels.
This is the fifth time in the past eight years that Paris has qualified for the state competition as a team, earning eighteenth place out of over 30 teams in this year’s competition. Additionally, senior Noah Dundas earned a second place finish in physics as an individual. This the school’s first state medal in physics and also the highest state finish by an individual in any category.
The Academic Challenge team is chosen and assisted by faculty advisors in each category. This year’s advisors were Stefan Aydt (math and computer science), Brett Block (chemistry), Cherie Lehman (physics), Graham Bennett (engineering graphics), Jordan Stallings (English) and Jami Wilson (biology).
ACES team members for 2025 State as chosen by the faculty are seniors: Eli Brinkerhoff, Natalie Burger, James Calvert, Noah Dundas and Bryce McGrath; juniors: Sean Dunn, Alina Leader, Christian Perez, Keenan Svendsen and Karic Vitale; sophomore: Kailey Young and freshman: Brody Stults.