Academic Ambassador Award
Chris Johnson
Itawamba High School
Fulton, MS
PACE is pleased to present the 2020 Benjamin Cooper Academic Ambassador Award to Chris Johnson, the coach of Itawamba High School in Fulton, Mississippi, for his admirable work expanding high school quizbowl in the area, both through outreach to local schools to create and develop new teams, and through hosting high quality, pyramidal events and encouraging other local hosts to do the same.
Young Ambassador Award
Ashish Kumbhardare
Penn State University
State College, PA
PACE is pleased to present the 2020 Benjamin Cooper Young Ambassador Award to Ashish Kumbhardare of Penn State University for his outstanding outreach and logistics work in Central Pennsylvania, which has included directing high quality events at Penn State, assisting with logistics of other local tournaments, and recruiting and advising new teams.
While this similarity is coincidental, both of our award winners this year have done outstanding work in areas that are more rural and traditionally less active in quizbowl. PACE applauds their efforts, and we hope that they will stand as exemplars to the community in demonstrating the great potential of students and teams from all backgrounds.