By Philip R. Devlin.
Vivek Ravishankar of Staba Drive in Higganum and a 2003 Haddam Killingworth High School graduate made his Jeopardy debut on Tuesday, Nov. 1 and won! Vivek amassed $23,199 in the win.
Down early in single Jeopardy, Vivek rallied late by answering 9 questions correctly to amass $4,600 at the break to be slightly ahead of the existing champion, a woman from Anchorage, Alaska. He nearly ran the “e before i” word category, getting 4 of 5 answers correct.
The existing champion surged ahead in Double Jeopardy. Vivek then rallied in the “Pulitzer Prize” category by hitting a Daily Double worth $3,000 to close the gap. His knowledge of recent movies moved him even closer; in fact, with one question worth $2,000 left in the game, he was tied with the champion at $17,200. She then answered a question on reptiles correctly to get $19,200 going into Final Jeopardy.
The Final Jeopardy category was “European Countries.” The answer was: “This country was part of the Warsaw Pact in 1955, then became a member of NATO in 2009. It was alphabetically first in each organization.” Both Vivek and another challenger ‒ an English teacher from Indiana ‒ answered correctly with “What is Albania?” The existing champion went with “France” for some peculiar reason. Vivek added $5,999 to his total to win with over $23,000. It was thrilling to see.
Vivek was an outstanding student at HK, particularly in math, as well as a valuable member of both High School Bowl and the Math League; in addition, he was nominated by the faculty to serve as a student representative on the Regional School District #17 Board of Education.
Vivek later studied at Harvard and works as a consultant now.
