The AcaDeca team made it to state, and one student in particular, senior Tasi Ana Sanchez, qualified for nationals and will participate as a national competitor in California on April 23-25, 2026. Academic Decathlon is a nation-wide club based on academics. Students of all academic abilities compete in seven objective and three subjective categories: Math, Economics, Social Studies, Science, Literature, Music, Art, Essay, Speech, and Interview.
“Making it to nationals definitely took me by surprise,” Sanchez said. “I found out during my first hour and I couldn’t concentrate the rest of the day. My immediate first thoughts were that they’d made a mistake. I’m super excited to get this opportunity though! It’ll be my first time going to California, and representing my school while I’m there is just an added bonus.”
Sanchez wasn’t the only person who was surprised about the news. Academic Decathlon adviser Nick Kvam was ecstatic to say the least.
“To my knowledge, no one from Berlin has ever been to nationals for Academic Decathlon,” Kvam said.
After the state competition on Feb. 26-27, the team had to wait for their scores.
“I found out on Sunday, March 1, in the morning. The state director texted me and informed me that she qualified after we had the state competition on that Friday,” Kvam said.
Sanchez found out the very next day during school, overjoyed about the news. Qualifying for the national competition is very important for her.
“I feel incredibly honored to be able to represent my school during my senior year. I’ve done so much throughout my years, and it feels nice to be recognized as one of six students from Wisconsin to get to go as individuals,” Sanchez said.
To prepare for nationals, Sanchez has to study a lot of the material.
“At the regional and state levels, I didn’t do anything to prepare. I tested well strictly because I knew most of the information going into the tests. For nationals, I feel obligated to study some of my rougher areas. My lowest scores are always in economics and art, so I’m going to focus especially on those topics,” Sanchez said.
Sanchez thanks her adviser, Kvam, for keeping her on track and helping her achieve such a huge honor for Berlin High School as a national qualifier.
“I especially want to thank Mr. Kvam for being such a supportive adviser,” Sanchez said. “He’s done a lot for the team, whether it’s as simple as driving us to competitions or something more time-consuming, like offering time to study and/or resources to study from. The best thing he’s been able to help with is just being a friendly face to look for during the stressful times that come with meets. I’m excited to be able to go to nationals with him; I’m sure his energy will be a major contributor to my success.”
Nationals will take place at the Hyatt Regency in Garden Grove, California on April 23-25. The pair will set off to nationals onWednesday, April 22. Nationals is a huge accomplishment for students, and it is something to be praised for. Kvam is very excited and hopes to keep kids inspired through this experience.
“As students, in general, dream big. It doesn’t always happen that often, but there’s people that have represented us at different things nationally or participated at things nationally. Even when you’re from a small town, you still can experience and compete in a lot of really high level events and kind of cool things like that,” Kvam said.
