Andrew Wojtanik (born 1989) was the winner of the

National Geographic Bee The National Geographic GeoBee (called the National Geography Bee from 1989 to 2000 and the National Geographic Bee from 2001 to 2018, also referred to as the Nat Geo Bee) was an annual geography contest sponsored by the National Geographic Soc ...

hosted by Alex Trebek in 2004, and the National Geographic World Championship in 2005. To get to the National Geographic Bee finals, he survived two tiebreakers to advance to the final round against 13-year-old Matthew Wells of

Montana Montana () is a state in the Mountain West division of the Western United States. It is bordered by Idaho to the west, North Dakota and South Dakota to the east, Wyoming to the south, and the Canadian provinces of Alberta, British Columb ...

, beating him to win a $25,000 scholarship. He credits his success to a 384-page book he compiled, which is now an official study guide for the Bee, called "Afghanistan to Zimbabwe: Country Facts That Helped Me Win the National Geographic Bee", which was published in 2004. A second edition, "The National Geographic Bee Ultimate Fact Book: Countries A to Z", was published in 2011. Andrew lived in

Overland Park, Kansas Overland Park ( ) is the second-most populous city in the U.S. state of Kansas. Located in Johnson County, Kansas, it is one of four principal cities in the Kansas City metropolitan area and the most populous suburb of Kansas City, Missouri. As ...

and in 2008 graduated from

Blue Valley West High School Blue Valley West High School is a fully accredited public high school located in Overland Park, Kansas, United States, and one of five high schools by Blue Valley USD 229 school district, and has a current enrollment of approximately 1,280 studen ...

. His family has since moved to

Florida Florida is a state located in the Southeastern region of the United States. Florida is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the northwest by Alabama, to the north by Georgia, to the east by the Bahamas and Atlantic Ocean, and to ...

. He attended

Georgetown University Georgetown University is a private university, private research university in the Georgetown (Washington, D.C.), Georgetown neighborhood of Washington, D.C. Founded by Bishop John Carroll (archbishop of Baltimore), John Carroll in 1789 as Georg ...

, majoring in International Politics. There, he served as events director for the Georgetown

College Democrats College Democrats are organizations on many college campuses, working to elect Democratic Party candidates and provide networking and leadership opportunities for student members. The chapters have served as a way for college students to connect w ...

and was active in many other campus organizations. He now works for the

Harvard Kennedy School The Harvard Kennedy School (HKS), officially the John F. Kennedy School of Government, is the school of public policy and government of Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts. The school offers master's degrees in public policy, public ...

as a research assistant.

Publications

*''Afghanistan to Zimbabwe'', by Andrew Wojtanik ()

References

*
Kansas 8th Grader Wins National Geographic Bee
', by Sarah Ives 1989 births Harvard Kennedy School staff Living people National Geographic Bee Writers from Kansas {{US-writer-stub