St. Joseph’s Catholic School took a team of 8th grade students to the Science Olympiad National Competition at the University of Nebraska Lincoln at the end of May after winning the Idaho State competition. While there, our team won the incredible honor of the Spirit Award.
At the state competition our two teams finished in 1st and 3rd place bringing home 6 gold medals, 8 silver and 9 bronze medals. St. Joe’s has won the Idaho State competition 18 times since 1998 and Mrs. McClure, our middle school science teacher, has led St. Joe’s to first place at the Idaho State Competition the last 16 times.
While St. Joe’s has a very successful record of attending the National Competition, we had never medaled, until this year! For the first time in St. Joe’s history, our team was honored as the winners of the Spirit Award, one of the highest honors awarded.
This is St. Joe’s first ever trophy at Nationals and an incredible honor for our school and the state of Idaho. The Science Olympiad Spirit Awards are among the highest honors given to teams and recognize students and coaches that have a positive attitude, exemplify teamwork, have respect for the rules and their fellow competitors, and exhibit sportsmanlike conduct. Only two teams qualifying for the 2025 National Tournament were presented this award along with $2,000 each to be used toward the school’s Science Olympiad program. Teams were chosen by their work exhibiting the 3C’s of Science Olympiad during the academic year (Character and Citizenship in the Community) and their conduct at the 2025 Science Olympiad National Tournament.
When sending the check to us the CEO of Science Olympiad Jennifer Kopach commented, “Your team was an easy choice – you received so many compliments!”