All-star students from Bronx Theater High School and Collegiate Institute for Math and Science are competing in the first round of the 12th season of The Challenge, Cablevision’s educational quiz show where the best and brightest from all across the tri-state area test their abilities against one another.
The two Bronx schools, Bronx Theater High School located on the Kennedy campus in Kingsbridge, and CIMS at 925 Astor Avenue on the campus of Christopher Columbus High School will compete for prizes and bragging rights in the fun, jeopardy-style show pitting the best minds of one school against another.
The first round match-up will air exclusively on News 12 the Bronx at 6:30 pm and 9:30 pm on Saturday, January 31, and Sunday, February 1, with encores airing on Saturday, February 7, and Sunday, February 8, at 6:30 pm and 9:30 pm. The Challenge, hosted by News 12 the Bronx anchor Heather McBride, can also be viewed anytime through the convenience of video on demand (VOD) through News 12 Interactive, located on iO TV channel 612.
“I think that the kids had a great bonding experience practicing for The Challenge,” said Bronx Theater principal Debbi Effinger. “They came in on Saturday and stayed after school. They had a lot of fun and were very proud to represent their school. They were good academically.”
At CIMS, the whole school was supporting the team in its preparation for the taping of the show in March. First, principal Estelle Hans made sure that all of the pieces were in place for the competition.
“The first thing that did was to find teachers who are interesting in putting the time and effort into getting kids to work together as a unit,” Hans said. “The teachers who are training and working with the kids were looking for kids who had different talents in different areas. In a small school, it is easy to pick out who is talented in different areas.”
Also, competiting this year is Truman High School, who will meet Preston High School in March in another Bronx match-up.
“It is good for our students to have the opportunity to compete against other schools academically when so much of competition with other schools is usually done in sports,” said Challenge faculty moderator Jessica Weintraub, an English teacher at Truman. “Participating in The Challenge is creating different sense of unity having our students cheering the school in academic setting. It creates an identity for Truman as school with great academics.”
