In 2015, when 7th grader Eshaan Vakil and his quiz bowl team were on their first National Academic Quiz Tournament (NAQT), a team from another state asked where the Las Vegas team was from. When the Las Vegans responded, someone passed a comment about how they were surprised that "people studied in Las Vegas."
That moment was the turning point, and Eshaan decided to do something about it!
While enthusiastically preparing for his next exciting experience at NAQT, Eshaan started to work towards the idea of creating a nonprofit to provide free resources and opportunities to further youth education. The non-profit would be dedicated to motivating Nevada youth to learn, train for, and compete at the National level. The contagious enthusiasm spread throughout the Las Vegas community. Coaches, teachers and community members got together and Alliance for Academic Quiz Bowl (AAQB), a Nevada non-profit, was born in 2016.
Through our tournaments, workshops and camps we have reached out to 32 schools, including elementary, middle and high schools. AAQB has contributed 2400+ learning hours and 6000+ volunteer hours. Since 2016, two middle school teams that participated in our program received the opportunity to play at quiz bowl Nationals.
Today AAQB has reached out to over 700+ kids in the Las Vegas area, and its programs receives grant support from City of Las Vegas. Browse our picture gallery to share in our journey.
In 2019 our founder, Eshaan Vakil, received the Prudential Spirit of Community distinguished finalist award, The U.S. President's Volunteer Service Gold Award (1000+ hours) and Certificate of Recognition from Gov. Steve Sisolak for the work done through AAQB. Mayor Goodman declared March 3rd 2018 as Learn Through Quiz Bowl Day in recognition of the work Eshaan has done through AAQB. Education policy and funding is a high priority issue for our founder. To that end, he worked as a researcher at Brookings Mountain West (a collaboration between the Brookings Institution in Washington, DC, and UNLV) and presented an original paper on State & Local Per Pupil Funding for Higher Education in the Mountain West States at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas’ Summer Undergraduate Research Symposium 2019, for which he received an commendation from US Senator Jacky Rosen. He has also worked as an intern at the Lincy institute and his work on Nevada demographics and the first female-majority legislature is pending publication.
His future goal is addressing disparities in education and healthcare through technology on a global scale.
Social Impact Initiatives
Founder, QuizWise® - is a learning technique that Eshaan developed and trademarked to help elementary schoolers master challenging concepts in particularly sciences and humanities. This technique uses big picture ideas and hands-on learning. QuizWise has been a hallmark of AAQB’s coaching and volunteer training. Due to QuizWise’s remarkable success AAQB has been invited to coach in multiple schools throughout the state.
Founder, Olivia-May Coding & Quiz Bowl Camp for Girls – This is a summer camp program designed to improve the participation of girls in quiz bowl and coding. It is the first initiative of its kind to combine both Quiz Bowl and Coding for girls. Through this program, participants create projects such as conversational AIs and calculators under the guidance of camp counselors. Additionally, they are trained to apply advanced concepts in math, science and humanities to quiz bowl. Tesla, Zappos and UNLV have supported this camp. Kids from 22 schools have benefited from this camp.
Founder, Re-Chargers® - This is a program designed to create a welcoming and inclusive high school environment through creation of a peer mentorship model. The program was first started in Clark High School last year, and resources are made available to any high school around the world, free of cost. Re-Chargers hopes to build strong school communities through actively engaged student leadership.
Media Links
https://www.reviewjournal.com/local/southwest/quiz-tourney-winner-fights-las-vegas-stereotypes-1680029/
https://spirit.prudential.com/honoree/2019/nv/eshaan-vakil
https://www.reviewjournal.com/opinion/letters/letter-local-scholar-deserves-district-support-1685144/
https://www.historybowl.com/2019-national-champions-crowned-bowl-beavercreek-v-hunter-jv-bee-hari-parameswaran-v-shiva-oswal-jv-small-school-bowl-tj-classical-v-archimedean-jv/
https://newsroom.ccsd.net/clark-high-school-student-eshaan-vakil-excels-at-history-olympiad/
https://newsroom.ccsd.net/clark-high-school-student-eshaan-vakil-excels-at-international-history-olympiad/
https://newsroom.ccsd.net/hyde-park-middle-school-student-eshaan-vakil-excels-in-national-quiz-bowl-tournament/
https://www.clarkchargers.org/apps/news/show_news.jsp?REC_ID=505994&id=0
https://www.clarkchargers.org/ourpages/auto/2017/2/3/42236976/HS%20Player%20Press%20Release.pdf
That moment was the turning point, and Eshaan decided to do something about it!
While enthusiastically preparing for his next exciting experience at NAQT, Eshaan started to work towards the idea of creating a nonprofit to provide free resources and opportunities to further youth education. The non-profit would be dedicated to motivating Nevada youth to learn, train for, and compete at the National level. The contagious enthusiasm spread throughout the Las Vegas community. Coaches, teachers and community members got together and Alliance for Academic Quiz Bowl (AAQB), a Nevada non-profit, was born in 2016.
Through our tournaments, workshops and camps we have reached out to 32 schools, including elementary, middle and high schools. AAQB has contributed 2400+ learning hours and 6000+ volunteer hours. Since 2016, two middle school teams that participated in our program received the opportunity to play at quiz bowl Nationals.
Today AAQB has reached out to over 700+ kids in the Las Vegas area, and its programs receives grant support from City of Las Vegas. Browse our picture gallery to share in our journey.
In 2019 our founder, Eshaan Vakil, received the Prudential Spirit of Community distinguished finalist award, The U.S. President's Volunteer Service Gold Award (1000+ hours) and Certificate of Recognition from Gov. Steve Sisolak for the work done through AAQB. Mayor Goodman declared March 3rd 2018 as Learn Through Quiz Bowl Day in recognition of the work Eshaan has done through AAQB. Education policy and funding is a high priority issue for our founder. To that end, he worked as a researcher at Brookings Mountain West (a collaboration between the Brookings Institution in Washington, DC, and UNLV) and presented an original paper on State & Local Per Pupil Funding for Higher Education in the Mountain West States at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas’ Summer Undergraduate Research Symposium 2019, for which he received an commendation from US Senator Jacky Rosen. He has also worked as an intern at the Lincy institute and his work on Nevada demographics and the first female-majority legislature is pending publication.
His future goal is addressing disparities in education and healthcare through technology on a global scale.
Social Impact Initiatives
Founder, QuizWise® - is a learning technique that Eshaan developed and trademarked to help elementary schoolers master challenging concepts in particularly sciences and humanities. This technique uses big picture ideas and hands-on learning. QuizWise has been a hallmark of AAQB’s coaching and volunteer training. Due to QuizWise’s remarkable success AAQB has been invited to coach in multiple schools throughout the state.
Founder, Olivia-May Coding & Quiz Bowl Camp for Girls – This is a summer camp program designed to improve the participation of girls in quiz bowl and coding. It is the first initiative of its kind to combine both Quiz Bowl and Coding for girls. Through this program, participants create projects such as conversational AIs and calculators under the guidance of camp counselors. Additionally, they are trained to apply advanced concepts in math, science and humanities to quiz bowl. Tesla, Zappos and UNLV have supported this camp. Kids from 22 schools have benefited from this camp.
Founder, Re-Chargers® - This is a program designed to create a welcoming and inclusive high school environment through creation of a peer mentorship model. The program was first started in Clark High School last year, and resources are made available to any high school around the world, free of cost. Re-Chargers hopes to build strong school communities through actively engaged student leadership.
Media Links
https://www.reviewjournal.com/local/southwest/quiz-tourney-winner-fights-las-vegas-stereotypes-1680029/
https://spirit.prudential.com/honoree/2019/nv/eshaan-vakil
https://www.reviewjournal.com/opinion/letters/letter-local-scholar-deserves-district-support-1685144/
https://www.historybowl.com/2019-national-champions-crowned-bowl-beavercreek-v-hunter-jv-bee-hari-parameswaran-v-shiva-oswal-jv-small-school-bowl-tj-classical-v-archimedean-jv/
https://newsroom.ccsd.net/clark-high-school-student-eshaan-vakil-excels-at-history-olympiad/
https://newsroom.ccsd.net/clark-high-school-student-eshaan-vakil-excels-at-international-history-olympiad/
https://newsroom.ccsd.net/hyde-park-middle-school-student-eshaan-vakil-excels-in-national-quiz-bowl-tournament/
https://www.clarkchargers.org/apps/news/show_news.jsp?REC_ID=505994&id=0
https://www.clarkchargers.org/ourpages/auto/2017/2/3/42236976/HS%20Player%20Press%20Release.pdf
