Mission Federal Academic Decathlon March 18, 2010

Capturing the Spirit of the Winter Olympic Games, Mission Federal Credit Union was a proud sponsor of the Olympic-like gold, silver and bronze medals awarded to winners of the 28th Annual High School Academic Decathlon at the annual awards ceremony hosted by the San Diego County Office of Education. The Academic Decathlon competition was held on Saturday, Feb. 7 at Sweetwater High School in National City. The Olympic-inspired awards ceremony and dinner honoring the individual and team winners took place on Wednesday, Feb. 17 at the Peace and Justice Theatre on the University of San Diego campus, with Dr. Randy Ward serving as keynote speaker.
Debra Schwartz, chief executive officer and president, Mission Federal Credit Union, presented a speech which compared the determination, focus and excellence of the decathletes to that of the Winter Olympians. Mission Federal Credit Union has sponsored the awards ceremony since its inception 28 years ago.
More than 150 students from 17 local high schools participated in the Academic Decathlon Competition. The all-day competition tests and rewards academic strengths at both the team level and individual level in 10 events: six written tests in music, art, language and literature, mathematics, economics, and social science, and three communications tests – an interview, an essay and a prepared and impromptu speech. The final Decathlon event is the Super Quiz, a College Bowl-type competition in which students compete as teams. Students are coached by high school teachers who devote many hours to help students prepare for the rigorous competition.