Em Gunter

From QBWiki
Revision as of 10:27, 18 April 2022 by Kevin Wang (talk | contribs)
Jump to navigation Jump to search
Em Gunter
Emvandegraff.jpg
Current college Virginia (2021-Present)
High school Salem (2017-2021)
HSQB profile meebles127
Stats HDWhite • NAQT

Em Gunter is a student at Virginia and former player and president at Salem High School. They joined PACE in 2021 and previously served as their Director of Communications.


Career

Em began playing quizbowl during their freshman year of high school, but scaled back involvement as a player in 2020 to dedicate more time to tournament direction and outreach. Em is currently at the University of Virginia, where they help with staffing and logistics.

They also authored the "The Herb Brooks Memorial Packet", a vanity packet centered around the 1980 US Olympic hockey team.

Outreach

While at Salem, Em wrote the "Guide to High School Outreach"[1] and the guide to bzzer selection "So You Want to Buy a Buzzer System".[2]

In 2021, Em won the Benjamin Cooper Young Ambassador Award for their extraordinary commitment to outreach, both on a local level in central Virginia and on a national level by writing articles on outreach and helping tournament directors handle online logistics in the age of COVID-19.

Logistics

In response to the cancellation of the 2020 ICT, Em worked with Will Alston to organize the 2020 Internet Charity Tournament, a Festivus-style weekend of vanity packet readings which raised $4,465.91 in charitable donations for the CDC Foundation. In June 2020 Em spoke at the David Riley Coaches Conference about outreach to under-represented populations and hosting quizbowl tournaments during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Em organized both the 2020 and 2021 editions of Festivus, introducing organizational changes like formalized schedules and sign-ups inspired by their earlier work on the Internet Charity Tournament. Donations were gathered for Partners in Health in 2020 and Be The Match in 2021.

Em and Jordan Davidsen served as Assistant Tournament Directors for 2022 ACF Nationals alongside main TD Michael Kearney.

Benjamin Cooper Young Ambassador Award
Preceded by
Year
Succeeded by
Ashish Kumbhardare
2021
TBD

References

  1. My Guide to High School Outreach by meebles127 » Fri May 31, 2019 7:48 pm
  2. So You Want to Buy a Buzzer System by meebles127 » Sat Jun 15, 2019 6:16 pm