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Souderton Academic Decathlon Wins 12 Medals at Academic Decathlon National Finals

Academic Decathlon Students

From April 29 to May 3, 2025, students from across the nation competed in the 57th annual United States Academic Decathlon National Finals, held at the Iowa Events Center in the city of Des Moines, IA. Souderton placed 21st overall out of 71 state champion and at-large teams, and in Division II, placed 7th. Divisions for Nationals were determined by qualifying score in the state championship round.

Students competed in ten events – essay, speech, interview, math, music, literature, science, social science, art, and economics, in nine-member teams composed of three honors or “A” students, three scholastic or “B” students, and three varsity or “C” students, forcing teams to work together across different ability levels to learn the same content. Students are recognized within these GPA divisions in each subject of the Decathlon.

The subjects this year were centered on a theme – Our Changing Climate. Students earned 12 national medals, setting a new school record, including a new Souderton Nationals individual medal record by senior Giovanni Iervolino with five medals, and senior Ahsan Rahman with a perfect score in the art event.

Souderton scored 41,894.1 out of 60,000 possible points, with national champion El Camino Real Charter HS from California taking the national championship with 52,987.3 points. Souderton has been competing in the Academic Decathlon since 2013 and has won 7 Eastern PA regional titles and 4 PA state titles, also representing PA at the national finals in 2018, 2021, and 2023 in addition to 2025. The team is coached by computer science teacher Phil Cerami, mathematics teacher Carolyn Scott, and French teacher Sally Cushmore.

Members of the Souderton Academic Decathlon team are Seniors Giovanni Iervolino, Ahsan Rahman, and Henry Dang in the Honors Division, Seniors Aaron Im, Trina Nguyen, and Maddy Zhang in the Scholastic Division, and Seniors Jaden Nguyen and Nate Soucier, and Sophomore Gideon Pham in the Varsity Division, with Junior Caroline Stout and Sophomore Ryan Markus as captains and student coaches during the event.

Students at Academic Decathlon

Division II Results

1st LANE TECH PREP HS IL 47,093.1
2nd VERDUGO HILLS HS CA 46,459.2
3rd SENECA VALLEY HS PA 45,497.3
4th CEDAR RAPIDS JEFFERSON HS IA 43,681.0
5th LATHROP HS AK 42,878.0
6th BASIS SCOTTSDALE AZ 42,222.1
7th SOUDERTON AREA HS PA 41,894.1
8th MT MICHAEL BENEDICTINE NE 41,803.7
9th WILMOT UNION HS WI 41,015.7
10th HEALTH CAREERS HS TX 40,259.2
11th WILLOUGHBY SOUTH HS OH 38,965.9
12th WAUKESHA WEST HS WI 37,204.1
13th NEW BERLIN WEST HS WI 36,869.6
14th WELLESLEY HS MA 27,341.1

 

INDIVIDUAL MEDALS – SOUDERTON AREA HS

Honors Division I (3.8-4.0)

Giovanni Iervolino - Team MVP, Gold in Economics, Silver in Art and Science, Bronze in Music and Math

Ahsan Rahman - Gold in Art and Interview, Silver in Economics

 

Scholastic Division I (3.2-3.8)

Maddy Zhang - Silver in Speech and Interview, Bronze in Literature

 

Varsity Division (0.0-3.2)

Jaden Nguyen - Bronze in Math