This month’s Senior Spotlight is on Academic Decathlon star Angelina “Angie” Rivera-Siler, and we found her hard work and brilliant academic success to be admirable. 

Rivera-Siler is part of the Academic Decathlon here at CI, (also known as AcaDeca), which is an annual academic competition involving tests, essays, and speeches. She has been in the program since her junior year of high school. Rivera-Siler is a new face here at CI, after moving from Bakersfield.

When asked about how tasks are held in the AcaDeca community, Rivera-Siler mentions how she had to write an essay and take a multiple-choice test and she described it as “competitive studying.”  She also talks about an important segment of the competition, which is the speech as it needs to be recited in under 4 minutes. The speech can be about anything, quite literally. 

“I wrote mine about poetry but it can be about anything. I have a friend who wrote about mayonnaise,” said Rivera-Siler.

Ms. Caitlyn Gintjee, the AcaDeca advisor and a teacher here at CI, explains how AcaDeca has three divisions students compete in: Honors (GPA of 3.8 or higher), Scholastic (GPA of 3.2-3.8) and Varsity (GPA of 3.19 or lower). 

“Their GPA determines their division,” said Ms Gintjee. “I will take any gpa. The lower your GPA the better.”  

Rivera-Soler was part of the Honors division. She won first place in art, third in literature, and a plaque for the highest score on the team within the county. This is not all though, as she won second place in art and econ within the state. She accomplished all this with AcaDeca during her senior year. 

“When I joined Academic Decathlon last year, I was able to find a group I could talk to, hang out with and it gave me a way to reach out to people and integrate myself into the Channel Islands culture,” said Rivera-Siler. “It teaches you valuable skills, like how to be a good student. Personally speaking, if it weren’t for Academic Decathlon my grades would have dropped.”

Apart from AcaDeca, she was also chosen to be a valedictorian for the class of 2023.  After high school, she is planning to go to California Polytechnic San Luis Obispo University and major in biology. 

“Angie is a very impressive student,” said Ms. Gintjee.