The team usually goes to a handful of invitationals across the state every year, including one at Cornell University in Ithaca and the regional competition in Plattsburgh. In 2022 and 2023, the team also placed high enough at regionals to go to the state competition at Le Moyne College. The MIT invitational is selective; the top 10 teams in the country are automatically invited, and the rest are chosen in a lottery. This is the second time KCS has been invited.

“We are always the smallest school, by far, at any competition we go to,” said Mary Werner, science and special education teacher at KCS and the Science Olympiad team’s adviser. “It’s like a wrestling team or a track team. You can have individual wins that apply to your team’s overall score and then you have your team ranking. So, even if we might not rank really high somewhere like MIT, we had two students who ranked 16th (in their events).”

The MIT invitational was KCS’s stiffest competition yet, pitting them against teams from as far away as Hawaii and California.

“It was pretty intimidating,” said Avry LaVallee, KCS senior and team member. “I was in a room with (other students) and they were talking about how easily they win states every year.”

“At the same time, it is easy to be the underdog. When you go into it knowing you’re not going to get a top place and just seeing how well you can do, I think it’s more enjoyable,” added Soren Jacobson, KCS senior and team member.

The students take on a few events each with partners. Jacobson, for instance, competed in the flight event, in which he had to construct an airplane propelled by rubber bands. LaVallee and her partner, junior Zarela Gulli, competed in “write it, do it,” where one partner completes a sketch of a structure and the other partner has to reconstruct the structure in a different room based on the sketch.

Pia Morelli, a senior, competes with a partner in the anatomy and physiology event.

“It’s always fun when you do well,” she said. “It feels good to know that, although we’re so small, we can actually do pretty well in an academic environment like that.”

Werner said that the MIT invitational was “a whole different world.” Private schools and public schools from wealthier areas had a larger student body to recruit from, stricter standards for joining their teams and significant financial resources.

“The inequity that I witnessed at MIT in our education system was astounding — just the schools that have unending resources financially. We had two schools from Silicon Valley and they had businesses that sponsored volunteers from their workplace,” she said. “One guy said his company gives $15,000 a year toward all of his expenses to support this team. That means coaching and giving them advice and traveling, hotels, meals.”

The Beavers also have sponsorships, though not to the tune of some of the other schools at MIT. This was the first year that Werner reached out to companies to sponsor the team. They were sponsored this year by the Adirondack Council, High Peaks Education Foundation, the Trudeau Institute, Quantiphi, R Public Relations, the Adirondack Land Trust and Sylvamo. Altogether, the team amassed more than $3,500 to fund its trip to Boston.

“Without them, we would not have gone to MIT,” Werner said.

Werner started the KCS team in 2017 with just four students. In the years that followed, the team has hovered around 20 members, give or take a few. As the team has grown, so has KCS’s support. Werner now co-advises the team with technology teacher Tonya Lackey. The team receives additional academic support from science teacher Eric Dornbush and a roster of community members and alumni with specialties in different areas of science. In addition, other teachers and administrators at KCS volunteer as chaperones for the trips.

“Setting up the Science Olympiad for us takes so much effort,” said Jacobson. “Hats off to Ms. Werner.”

“We couldn’t do it without her, really,” Morelli added.

The students give up two of their study halls a week to dedicate to Olympiad preparation, whether it be practicing for building events or studying for tests. They also put in a significant amount of work outside of the school day.

While many teenagers would prefer not to take on extracurricular academic work, the Olympiad team members said it was a good way to push their intellectual limits. They also enjoy the downtime between sessions at competitions, when they get to spend time with their teammates.

“You’re not only going to compete, but to spend time with everyone,” Gulli said. “Studying the night before (the competition) if we go to an invitational is always fun. We get to just be with everyone in a hotel.”

Werner said that Science Olympiad teaches students a variety of academic and life skills, as well as exposing them to a “big taste of the real world.”

The students agreed, each sharing a life lesson they’ve learned from their time on the team.

“Seeing what you prioritize and what other people prioritize,” Morelli said. “You have to understand that there’s other people that have more important things in their minds than what you have in yours.”

“Take it easy on yourself and your teammates,” Gulli said.

“How much you put in is how much you get out,” Jacobson said.

“Teamwork. There’s not a single event where you’re by yourself,” LaVallee said. “It’s good to know that there’s somebody there for you.”