(Image source from: University of Nebraska Omaha)

An Indian-origin student has bagged the title world championship at the International Geography Bee's junior varsity division which was held in Berlin, Germany earlier this month.

The 14-year-old tenth grader, Avi Goel from Silver Creek High School in Evergreen San Jose, California, topped the overall medals table winning a gold medal in seven among 10 medal events, and a silver medal in two of the events.

He likewise bagged the top spot in all the three events counting towards the world championship title - the International Geography Exam, the International Geography Showdown, and the International Geography Bee.

"After these awards, I want to move on to progress in other subject areas such as math and computer science as these are my desired areas to study in college. The lion’s share of my rationale for winning such things stems back to personal pride and desire although I hope to use them, to some extent, to hopefully embellish my college applications if possible," Avi told PTI.

The competition which took place from July 11-18, 2018 brought over 100 of the world's top geography students together to compete for the world championship title in the subject.

"With this international win, his longtime passion has been fulfilled and we are very proud of his hard work and dedication," proud parents Komal & Rajiv Goel said.

The contest featured various competitions in order to test all features of geographic knowledge from historical geography, to physical geography and climatology etc.

Earlier in 2017, despite being a middle schooler at that time, Avi won the national championships in Virginia of the United States Geography Olympiad junior varsity division. He has been competing in geography competitions throughout middle school, being victorious bagging 2nd in the state of California in the 6th grade.

George Bernstein, Chief Executive Officer, Nobel Learning Communities Inc congratulated Avi who is an "excellent example for us to share with the next generation of students."

By Sowmya Sangam