The World’s Best Teens Compete in the Microsoft Office World Cup
This July, we asked for software advice from the 2017 Microsoft Office National Champions, a group of adorable teenagers officially recognized as the best at using PowerPoint, Word, and Excel . The Verge recently followed these teens to the California World Cup , where they put their office skills to the test in a spelling competition that beat nerds.
“It was as if the opening ceremony of the Olympic Games were replaced with a networking event,” says Verge. The event showcases Microsoft’s global dominance as forty-nine countries competed, although Verge found many international competitors prefer to compete in English over their native language, as the company’s localized software is poorly translated.
Retired teacher Mary Röttgen, who has coached frequent national champions from Green Hope, North Carolina, takes pride in her successful team, but she gives Verge a hacker to get her excellent students to help teach her D.
[Röttgen] sets goals for his students — for example, getting 28 of the 30 students in a class to pass a certification test — and then gives them a bonus if they reach their grades. “I would throw off 20 bucks and we would have a class celebration.” This prompted the excellent students to help their struggling classmates. “And what’s even more interesting is this kid who was 28 – they were never honored in class for anything – but they were the ones who threw the party for the whole class.”
Röttgen, who is now just trying to make us cry, continues, “Will you take this honors or honors student and make them pass? It could change their lives. Someone just has to tell them that they are worth something. “
Docx Games: Three Days at the Microsoft Office World Championship | Facets