At RDF, we’re proud of our team for all that they do, both inside and outside of the office. So, this month we want to highlight a pretty cool achievement by one of our very own’s offspring.

Most of our clients have the pleasure of working with our Operations Assistant, Susan. One of the most impressive qualities about Susan is her diverse background. Originally from Ohio, she lived in Washington D.C. and Tokyo before ending up in Portland. Her work has ranged from the investment industry and classical arts to translation and teaching. Now, it’s charming to see that Susan’s cultural experience may have influenced her son, Sage’s, own curiosity about the world.

Sage recently tried out for the 2019 National Geographic GeoBee. This is an annual competition designed to inspire and reward students’ interest in the world around them. Students in grades four through eight, from nearly 10,000 schools across the United States, compete for a chance to win college scholarships and the glory of being the National Geographic GeoBee Champion.

First, the students compete on a classroom/grade level. Then, the grade-level finalists compete on a school level, and Sage was the champion for his entire school! Finally, the school champs all take an online test. Those with the top 100 scores qualify for the state level. It’s no surprise that Sage was one of those who qualified.

At state, the contestants participate in preliminary rounds to pare down to the top 10 students, who then compete onstage for first place. In the preliminaries, 70 kids were eliminated. Out of the remaining kids, eight clearly qualified and 22 tied for the last two spots. Those 22 competed in tie-breaker rounds. Although Sage was one of the 22 who got eliminated during the tie-breaker rounds, we are extremely impressed at the hard work he put in to make it as far as he did. The competition started with 40,000 kids testing in Oregon, and Sage ended up in the top 30 as a 5^th grader – wow! We can’t wait to see what happens next year.

Keep an eye on our blog and follow us on Instagram and Facebook for more cool highlights of RDF’s very own.