Souderton Academic Decathlon Wins Fourth State Title in Eight Years

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On March 14th and 15th, 2025, students from across Pennsylvania competed in the 41st annual Pennsylvania Academic Decathlon State Championship, held at Pope John Paul II High School. Souderton was victorious over 14 other district champions and wild card teams, and they now advance to the United States Academic Decathlon National Finals being held in Des Moines, IA in late April.

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.

The subjects this year were centered on a theme – Our Changing Climate. 4 of the 9 members of the PA All-State Team were Souderton students: Trina Nguyen and Aaron Im in the Scholastic Division, and Ahsan Rahman and Giovanni Iervolino in the Honors Division, with Iervolino having the highest score in the entire competition and winning the title of Individual PA State Champion with 8,943 points out of a possible 10,000.

Souderton scored 43,820 out of 60,000 possible points, beating 2^nd place and defending state champion Seneca Valley High School by 394 points. Souderton has been competing in the Academic Decathlon since 2013 and has won 7 regional titles and 4 state titles in that time.

Members of the state championship team: Seniors Giovanni Iervolino, Ahsan Rahman, and Henry Dang in the Honors Division, Aaron Im, Trina Nguyen, and Maddy Zhang in the Scholastic Division, and Nate Soucier, Gideon Pham, and Jaden Nguyen in the Varsity Division.

The team is coached by computer science teacher teacher Phil Cerami, mathematics teacher Carolyn Scott, and French teacher Sally Cushmore.

Team Results

1st	SOUDERTON AREA HS	43,820
2nd	SENECA VALLEY HS	43,426
3rd	MCDOWELL HS	40,238
4th	NW PA COLLEGIATE ACADEMY	38,197
5th	CLARION-LIMESTONE HS	36,538
6th	METHACTON HS	35,370
7th	CARLISLE HS	35,072
8th	NORTH PENN HS	34,559
9th	PENNS VALLEY HS	34,393
10th	NORTH CLARION HS	31,678
11th	PHILIPSBURG-OSCEOLA HS	30,423
12th	MONTOURSVILLE HS	30,210
13th	POPE JOHN PAUL II HS	30,028
14th	SOUTH WILLIAMSPORT HS	28,233
15th	MONITEAU HS	27,987

PA All-State Team

Honors (4.0-3.8)

• GOLD - GIOVANNI IERVOLINO - SOUDERTON AREA HS - 8,943
• SILVER - SUMEYRA TURGUNBEVA - MCDOWELL HS - 8,475
• BRONZE - AHSAN RAHMAN - SOUDERTON AREA HS - 8,387

Scholastic (3.78-3.2)

• GOLD - ROHIN JAYARAMAN - SENECA VALLEY HS - 8,428
• SILVER - AARON IM - SOUDERTON AREA HS - 7,869
• BRONZE - TRINA NGUYEN - SOUDERTON AREA HS - 7,637

Varsity (3.19-0.0)

• GOLD - MICHAEL KRAVEC - SENECA VALLEY HS - 6,494
• SILVER - SARAH GHAFFAR - SENECA VALLEY HS - 6,458
• BRONZE - GAVIN CRESS - SENECA VALLEY HS - 6,069

INDIVIDUAL MEDALS – SOUDERTON AREA HS

Honors Division (3.8-4.0)

• Giovanni Iervolino - Individual State Champion, All-State Team; Gold in Art, Social Science, Science, Economics; Silver in Math, Interview; Bronze in Music, Literature, Essay
• Ahsan Rahman - All-State Team; Silver in Art, Economics, Literature; Bronze in Social Science, Math
• Henry Dang - Gold in Music, Social Science, Essay; Silver in Interview; Bronze in Economics

Scholastic Division (3.2-3.8)

• Aaron Im - All-State Team; Gold in Art; Silver in Social Science, Economics, Science, Essay, Speech
• Trina Nguyen - All-State Team; Gold in Art; Silver in Science, Economics, Bronze in Music, Literature, Social Science
• Maddy Zhang - Gold in Economics; Silver in Art, Interview; Bronze in Speech

Varsity Division (0.0-3.2)

• Nate Soucier - Bronze in Social Science, Essay