John Jay High School Students To Appear On TV Quiz Show

CROSS RIVER, N.Y. – A team of students from John Jay High School will kick off the new season of the MSG Varsity network’s award-winning high school quiz show, “The Challenge,” when they take on Peekskill High School in a first round match-up.

The John Jay students competing on The Challenge are, Alex Lee, Janice Choi (alternate), Jackson Ruzzo (captain), Alexander Bolgar, and Angelo Angelino. At left is academic adviser Vicky Weiss and at center is "The Challenge" host Jared Cotter.
Photo Credit: *Courtesy of MSG Varsity*

by Bob Dumas

11/29/2012 2:00 a.m.

The show will air on Dec. 5, at 6:30 p.m. on Cablevision’s Optimum, channel 14.

John Jay will compete against 31 other schools from the Westchester-Hudson Valley during the Regional Rounds as they look to qualify for the Tri-State Championship Playoffs.

Back for his fourth season as host of “The Challenge” is Jared Cotter, host of “MSG Varsity’s Talent Show” and a popular semi-finalist from “American Idol.” Cotter will serve as moderator, testing competing teams on their knowledge of history, arts and literature, current events, mathematics and science in front of a live studio audience.

The John Jay team is represented by: Alex Lee, Angelo Angelino, Jackson Ruzzo (captain), Alexander Bolgar and Janice Choi (alternate). The academic adviser is Vicky Weiss.

“The Challenge” includes 192 high schools from the tri-state area – Long Island (with Nassau and Suffolk as two distinct regions), the Bronx, Brooklyn, Westchester/Lower Hudson Valley, New Jersey and Connecticut. A new match-up can been seen every Sunday through Friday at 6:30 pm, on channel 14.

Participating schools advance through a series of elimination rounds, with one school in each region being crowned regional champion and winning $2,500 for their school. The winning teams from each region go on to “The Challenge” Championship where they square off in a Tri-State Showdown. The school awarded the title of Tri-State Champion will receive $10,000 in prize money and each student participating in the final “Challenge” Championship game will receive $500.

For more information on “The Challenge,” log onto www.msgvarsity.com.

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