Coach Guilherme Lima coaches the team during a game (Photo credit: Dr. Cristina Meier)
By Kevin Dai
The high school Knowledge Bowl team traveled to Brasilia to represent PACA at the 2025 High School Knowledge Bowl tournament hosted by the School of the Nations on February 13 through 14 in order to test their basic knowledge of facts in academic, social and cultural categories.
The two day event featured five rounds of games and pitted eight participating schools against each other. Teams competed for points won by correctly answering questions faster than the opponent.
Last year, the PACA High School Team traveled to Recife where the EAR (Escola Americana de Recife) was hosting the tournament. Out of the group, current senior Chloe Harper was the only student to return this year for a second shot at the competition.
Along with Harper, the PACA team consisted of one other senior, two juniors, and two sophomores. They were accompanied by their coach, Mr. Guilherme Lima, and chaperones, Dr. Cristina Meier and Mr. Renato Souza.
One of the team members, current junior Davi Magalhães, who has been a member of the team for close to two years, but this was his first time to attend the competition. He commented about his experience on the trip and what it meant to him to be part of the Knowledge Bowl team.
“I learned that you need to value every person on your team and that everyone plays a fundamental role,” said Magalhães.
Mr. Lima, who acts as the coach for both middle school and high school PACA Knowledge Bowl teams, felt positive about the team’s potential and looked forward to its performance in future competitions.
“They are great students, intelligent and respectful. They are not afraid to take chances, which is super important for competitions of this kind.” he said, “I think we have become stronger, and will be ready to do even better next year. I am very proud of them.”
Mr. Lima also illustrated some of the team’s struggles, including rebuilding the team from scratch after COVID. The process began in the first semester of the 2023-24 school year with a brand new high school team, eventually expanding into middle school in the 2024-25 fall semester.
“It has been difficult rebuilding the team since the COVID years.” said Mr. Lima, “This year’s HIGH SCHOOL team only had one player who had already been to a [Knowledge Bowl] tournament before.”
According to Dr. Meier, who accompanied the team as a chaperone, PACA had a strong start as they faced last year’s champions, OLM (Our Lady of Mercy School), and were in the lead until the final half of the game. OLM and PACA were tied at the end both the final round and the bonus round. This led to the final tie breaking question that would push one team into the lead. Unfortunately, OLM was a little faster to answer this final question, giving them a final score of 25 over 24 points.
Meier also observed that momentum seemed against PACA that first day as they only won their third round against EARJ (Escola Americana Rio de Janeiro). They came back stronger the second day to score another decisive win against Chapel, a school from São Paulo that went almost completely undefeated the first day of the tournament.
After many close matches, the team ended the tournament in 7th place, defeating 2nd place Escola Americana de Recife and rival Chapel during the round-robins. The complete match record can be accessed through an email sent by the school office on February 13th.
PACA High School Knowledge Bowl Team, from left to right: Sophomore Asaph Santos, Junior Pedro Souza, Senior Chloe Harper, Senior Javier Lozano, Sophomore Rafael Portella, Junior Davi Magalhães, Coach Guilherme Lima (Photo credit: Dr. Cristina Meier)
As they competed with other Brazilian international schools over the course of two days (February 13 to 14), they also had the chance to explore some of the historic landmarks of the Brazilian capital.
Magalhães said he found it exciting to play in the tournament but also enjoyed visiting some tourist attractions.
“Most definitely,” he said when asked if he would go on another Knowledge Bowl trip like this one.
On Saturday, February 15th, the team joined other participating schools on a tour of some of the city’s famous landmarks, such as the Catedral Metropolitana Nossa Senhora Aparecida and the Torre de TV de Brasília.
The team stands in front of the Catedral Metropolitana Nossa Senhora in Brasília while on a tour of the city (Photo credit: Dr. Cristina Meier)
Earlier in the year, the middle school Knowledge Bowl participated in their own competition in Belo Horizonte. They placed first, beating the host school Escola Americana de Belo Horizonte in the finals.
The high school team brought back invaluable experience and insight from the competition which will propel them in their growth in the future. Students should make sure to congratulate any team members they see in school for such excellence and courage representing PACA on such a big stage.
