Staff Writer

Scarborough High School senior Caterina MacLean is smart. Really smart.

Aside from being the valedictorian of the Red Storm class of 2009, she also recently won a $3,000 scholarship from the Dollar General Literacy Foundation after beating 3,000 students from 38 states across the United States and England with the top-scoring essay during the National Academic Decathlon competition, hosted in Memphis, Tenn.

Academic decathlon involves teams of nine students who participate in 10 different events. Three events are speech, essay and interview, along with seven written tests of music, art, language and literature, social science, science, math and economics. Each of the written tests has 50 questions, for point total possibility of 10,000 points. The top six scoring players from each team combine points, for a possible team total of 60,000 points.

MacLean said Scarborough is one of 16 to 20 teams in the state to participate in academic decathlon, with Scarborough, Bangor High School and Monmouth Academy being three of the top teams in Maine. Scarborough won the Maine Class A state championship in academic decathlon this season to qualify for nationals.

MacLean said there are two judges that read essays during the national competition. For each academic decathlon season, the events have a picked theme that questions and essays are based on. For this year, it was Latin America. She said she had to write about the book “Bless the Ultima,” a coming of age story about a Latin American family living in New Mexico during the World War II era.

MacLean said she was not allowed to use any materials when writing the essay, having to remember and analyze the story from memory. She had 50 minutes to write a five-paragraph essay. Out of a possible 1,000 points for her response, MacLean received 995 points to win a gold medal and receive the scholarship. However, she was more interested in how she missed five points.

“It makes you wonder why,” she said.

MacLean said she joined the academic decathlon team sophomore year after her Latin teacher encouraged her to join the previous year. She said the teacher wrote Latin numbers on the board, each one representing a year of specific historical importance. He asked why 1066 was important and she was the only one to correctly answer the Norman Conquest. Because each member of the team gets packets to study during the summer, and because she thought she had too many prior commitments, MacLean didn’t join the team. 

MacLean said team members get along well and she has made many friends. 

“The fun doesn’t come from the learning, the fun part is the camaraderie,” she said. 

MacLean said she will attend the University of Chicago in the fall. She said she wants to study political science and linguistics, as well as Latin and Greek. 

Although she is proud of being valedictorian, she said “being good in school” doesn’t always translate to success in the working world.

“I’m naturally suited to be in school, school is sort of what I’m good at,” she said. “I’m not proud of that, but it doesn’t feel fraudulent to be valedictorian. A bunch of people worked hard while in school, and I just happened to be gifted at memorizing things, which is good for school and academic decathlon, but not necessarily in the real world.”

MacLean said she credits academic decathlon for helping her grow as a person.

“I’m an only child,” she said. “This is really the first time I had any sort of extended contact. It was a good experience to deal with other kids.” 

Staff writer Dave Dyer can be reached at 282-4337 ext. 219.