Whittaker takes home the Geography Bowl MVP award

By Brittany Andrews
Staff Writer

On Friday, Oct. 3, five students represented UNCP at the State Geography Bowl Competition at UNC-Greensboro.

Among the five competitors was Christina Whittaker who took home the Geography MVP award.

“The MVP award took me by surprise but I was really happy to have won it,” Whittaker said. “It makes me even happier to be advancing to the Regionals, but I am really nervous about going.

Whittaker attributes her success to her father who, during her childhood, spent hours looking at maps with her. She also gives credit to Professor Ehrlich’s World Regional Geography course she took over the past summer.

According to Dr. Ross, Whittaker will be the seventh person in UNCP’s short history of participating in the Geography Bowl to advance to Regionals.

“It’s a crapshoot – you get some right; you get some wrong,” Dr. Ross said of the stiff competition at the Bowl.

To prepare, Whittaker said she will need to brush up on her Earth Science, a subject she hasn’t studied since she was in the eighth grade, and she will continue to look at maps.