July 25, 2022 (Fairless Hills, PA) -- Conwell-Egan Catholic School (CEC) is pleased to announce that they have been awarded first place in the the Bucks County Reading Olympics Competition. On April 20, 2022, CEC’s Reading Olympics team, “Read S’More,” competed in the Bucks County Reading Olympics Competition for the very first time. Led by the Chair of CEC’s English Department, Kristen Kraunelis, the team ended the competition with a total score of 36,069 points, taking home first place. The team was notified in June of their first place win.

Eleven students came together to form a Reading Olympics team at CEC in the beginning of the school year. The team prepared for the competition first by getting a run down of the list of 25 books provided by the Bucks County Intermediate Unit. From there, each team member then chose a book to read from the list one by one. The objective of the competition was that each book be read by at least one member of the ‘Read S’More’ team. The true focus was to enjoy reading good books and to bring people together. 

“Our goal was to create a team culture with a low amount of stress and a high amount of fun,” said Kraunelis. “The day of the competition was extremely fun, and the team members shared a great deal of laughs while participating,” she added.

The structure of the competition is simple: each participating school creates a team, comes up with a fun team name, reads the books from the list, and then shows up to compete in the spring. The competition between participating high schools is usually held in person, but due to COVID-19, it was held online this year. Played in a game-show like style, each school fielded random questions about the books on the list. Per the guidelines of Reading Olympics, teams were allowed to answer questions collectively, so members collaborated throughout the competition to determine their answers. 

A fun aspect of Reading Olympics is the creativity in team names and shirt designs. In early April, CEC senior Gabi Cain created this year’s design for each member to wear for the competition.

“I enjoyed being a part of the Reading Olympics team and coming together with my teammates to compete. It was a fun experience, and it was really cool to see my design on our team shirts. We were so proud to hear that we had won first place and to see our hard work throughout the school year pay off,” said Cain.

CEC will have almost double the amount of students interested in joining the team for this upcoming school year. “I was so proud of the team for coming together and working so well with each other during the competition. Although it was fantastic to hear about the team’s win, it was even more rewarding to witness students truly enjoy reading great books,” said Kraunelis. 

For more details about the Bucks County Reading Olympics, please visit https://www.bucksiu.org/educators-administrators/reading-olympics. 

Interested in learning more about Conwell-Egan Catholic High School? Contact the Director of Admissions, Mrs. Kate Rice, at 215-945-6200 Ext. 410 or krice@conwell-egan.org to schedule a tour. Please visit www.conwell-egan.org for more information about scholarship and financial aid programs available for incoming and transfer students.

About Conwell-Egan Catholic High School
Conwell-Egan Catholic High School, a co-ed, college-preparatory school within the Archdiocese of Philadelphia, serves 580 students in Lower Bucks County in grades 9-12. CEC’s mission, within the tradition of our Catholic faith, collaborates to build character through service, achieve academic excellence, and demonstrate a commitment to lifelong learning. CEC is accredited by the Middle States Association Commissions on Elementary and Secondary Schools. To learn more visit www.conwell-egan.org or call 215-945-6200.