Cougar Academic Teams Compete on the Road and Online

(above) Cardigan’s Robotics Team competed in November at Thetford Academy. See more photos

From solving math problems to designing robots to creating works of art, Cardigan’s academic teams hold their own, often against older, more experienced competitors. Their intellectual battles take place both online and during weekend meets throughout New England. Their equipment includes pencils and screwdrivers, cameras and computers; their ideas and their creativity are their secret weapons. They are engineers, programmers, mathletes, diplomats, and artists, and here’s just a sampling of what they’ve been up to this year.

Robotics

Cardigan’s Robotics Team begins preparation for their competitions in September when they learn about the challenges posed by VEX Robotics, the company that sponsors local, regional, national, and world competitions every year. From there, the students begin to design and build their robots, taking into consideration both the practical and strategic ways in which they can succeed. This year Cardigan supported four teams, each with four students. 

“I remind the boys at every event that they are competing against primarily eleventh and twelfth-grade teams, many of whom begin building five months before our students even arrive on Cardigan’s campus,” says Director of Gates Jenny Sabados. “Holding their own under those circumstances is a meaningful accomplishment on many levels, and one they should be proud of.”

Each competition––four this year––is not just an opportunity to test the students’ construction and computer coding skills, it also gives them a chance to see how other teams from other schools are approaching the tournament challenges. The knowledge they gain through the competitions allows them to build better bots for their next competition. This year, their season culminated in the VEX Regional Championship in Manchester, New Hampshire on February 14. 

“Team Ten Degrees––Jiho Park ’26, William Zhu ’26, Allen Zhang ’26, Carlos Xie ’26––won seven out of eight matches and finished ranked third out of 40 teams, an incredible accomplishment at this level of competition,” says Ms. Sabados. “These boys have persevered, grown, and competed with grit and integrity. Their performance makes it clear that Cardigan is stepping confidently into the robotics arena as a force to be reckoned with. We are excited to see who will pick up the baton and follow in their footsteps next year.”

Art

In January, we celebrated six student artists who won awards in the Scholastic Art and Writing Awards, a national competition that has been celebrating young artists for over a century. From January 8 to February 8, their works of art were on display at Stockbridge Theater at Pinkerton Academy, and on the last day of the show, Cardigan’s artists attended the awards ceremony.

“It was great to see so much talent in one room,” says Art Department Chair Michael Tholen. “The works by Cardigan’s students demonstrated their creativity and skill in a very competitive contest.”

Model UN

At Cardigan, students’ preparation for Model UN begins in December during winter Thursday clubs. Math teacher Danielle Fedele teaches students about the format of the conference and practices mock trials with them.

In early February this year, students had a chance to test their skills against students from other schools when they participated in a high school Model UN conference, BosMUN, run by Boston University students. The event is one of the major high school conferences that attracts thousands of delegates from around the country and the world. Debating topics from art theft to the Lego bankruptcy crisis to the New Deal, students spent three days testing their skills in public speaking, diplomacy, and problem-solving.

Math Team

Twenty-six students have been competing for Cardigan this year in various math team events. 

This fall, students competed virtually against other schools in the Math Madness league. Tests were 30 minutes long and were composed of eight challenging questions. 

In November, 24 students took the AMC 10A or 10B. This challenging test for students in tenth grade or younger consists of 25 multiple-choice questions to be answered in 75 minutes. Many Cardigan students scored well; two students––Jinwoo Ham ’26 and Yoonsol Yang ’27––qualified for the American Invitational Mathematics Examination (AIME). Only the top 2.5% of all AMC 10 test-takers achieve the standard to participate in the AIME, a 15-question, 3-hour test. 

“Jinwoo and Yoonsol both completed this exam in February and put tremendous effort into their preparation,” says Math teacher Morgan Wilkinson.

Lastly, in January, 19 students took the AMC 8. This test, for students in eighth grade or younger, consists of 25 multiple-choice questions with a 45-minute time limit. Again, many students scored well, but the most impressive results came from Justin Shin ’27, who earned a perfect score of 25/25. 

“This is a major accomplishment,” says Mr. Wilkinson. “The 2026 summary score reports have yet to be released, but in 2025, there were only 162 perfect scores out of approximately 275,000 test participants. Way to go, Justin!”

The math team will continue to meet on Tuesday nights for weekly challenges that they can work on individually or in groups. Finally, the team hopes to compete in the Deerfield Math Competition against other sixth and ninth graders at the end of April.