The district academic UIL meet will be taking place on campus on Saturday and will allow students to compete in academic competitions from a varying range of topics.

“Saturday’s the district academic UIL meet and all 10 high schools will be coming over here tomorrow to compete for regionals in about 20 different events,” UIL coach Courtney Benson said. “The competition includes accounting, computer science, math, debate, journalism events, social studies, you name it, it’ll be here.”

Students have been working for months in preparation for the meet to refine their skills and get in practices.

“We started working in September, we had a general meeting, and everybody that was interested, could sign up for whatever test they wanted to take,” math teacher Jennifer Rumery said. “Then we met once a month to look over practice tasks, talk about what was going to be coming up just to get them familiar with the test. Starting in January, we meet every Monday to get ready for the Prosper meet.

The competition allows students to broaden their knowledge on topics that interest them.

“I’ve been just mostly reading news headlines. I’m doing some research on our websites, and just getting a good feel about what is going around the world currently,” senior Michael Yang said. “I think it’s beneficial because students have an access have a chance to express their knowledge and their depth of understanding of subjects that they love and that they can’t really do inside in the school setting.”

The benefits of participating in the UIL events are multifold according to Benson; ranging from potential scholarships to socializing with friends.

“There are scholarship opportunities that they win, if they’re able to make it to the state level, Benson said. “Also, it kind of reinforces all the core subjects that they’re learning, it goes along with the curriculum, and then it takes it kind of to a higher level so it increases critical thinking skills and it allows them to be on a team with somebody that they may not know or to be social and make friends.”

Looking to build on last year’s achievements, Rumery anticipates the results of Saturday’s meet.

“I am really hoping that we advance out of district for all three events,” Rumery said. “Last year, we got first in calculator. Second in both numbers sense and math. I’d really like to push those up to first and I think we’ve got a good chance.”