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“How many teeth does an aardvark have?” asked the moderator.  

The Lowndes County Career Tech team each scribbled answers as Jeopardy-like music played. The time was up. There was an answer. Then, there was applause. 

The team of students from Central High School won the scholars’ bowl in the eighth annual Extension, Education, and Research Track (EXERT) Scholars Bowl competition held by Tuskegee University on March 29. 

EXERT is a Tuskegee University Extension educational program in which students from Dallas, Lowndes, Macon, Montgomery, Perry, and Wilcox counties compete in areas including a scholars’ bowl, creating farm produce marketing plans, and developing concepts for their own businesses. 

In total, the Career Tech Vocational students from Central won the scholars bowl, the marketing category, and in the summer internship presentations.

George Hunter, Tuskegee University Extension coordinator for Lowndes County said of the student participation, “We were happy to include the youth competition in our 131st Annual Farmers Conference. Students from the Black Belt were able to showcase their talents and learn during the competition. This is a win-win for education.” 

“It means a great deal winning this event. It’s this team’s third year of winning,” said  Brittany Davis, business education teacher with the Lowndes County Career Technical Center. She smiled brightly and explained how hard the students worked studying for the scholars’ bowl.

“I gave them the packets,” Davis said. “We met and studied. They knew what each one had to do.”

Each student received a cash prize and medals after the competition.

“Helping the students’ study is always rewarding,” said Stacey Woodley, a past scholar bowl advisor, as she beamed at the team. “This group was easy to work with because they were disciplined and wanted to learn. They just soaked up the knowledge.”

Central student Shar’Dajai Harris is a member of the Lowndes County team. “I’m very excited,” Harris said. “To tell you the truth, at first, I was a little nervous.”

“We were nervous,’” said fellow student Zalen Burke. “But in the back of my mind I said, ‘If we did it before, we can do it again, and we did it.”