JOHNSTON COUNTY – Years of hard work and dedication have finally paid off for Team JOCO, our local Johnston County Homeschool Science Olympiad team. The team placed third overall at the ECU regional on February 17th. This earned them an opportunity to compete against 39 other top high school teams from across the state at NC State University.
Composed of 15 locally homeschooled students, many of them veteran competitors, Team JOCO wants to show the state that you can have fun, learn science, and glorify Jesus at the same time.
“It’s never been our goal to spend every spare moment studying science. We set out to make science fun to learn and make some friends. What started out as a great way to meet new people quickly turned into living out our faith while trying to just do our best with what we’ve learned that year,” says head coach, Martha Walker.
“Watching these kids grow and build friendships has been so rewarding. It’s going to be bittersweet to have many of our students graduate this year, but we’re looking forward to the new high schoolers who will decide to come be a part of our close knit team,” Amanda Ashworth, Team JOCO’s assistant coach, remarked.
While the team has seen plenty of success over the past seven years, this will be the first in-person bid to state that the team has received since their last chance was cancelled in 2020 with the outbreak of the pandemic. The team has competed twice at the state level during the online only years, but they’re extremely excited to be able to experience every aspect at NC State.
“We’d love to have everyone’s prayers as we head to competition. Our students have worked extremely hard to get to this level and we want to make JOCO proud,” stated Walker.
You can see events in action for yourself at NC State on April 13th. The event runs from 8:00am to 4:00pm, with awards at 6:00pm.