UPDATE: Jackson student wins 3rd place in national championship
UPDATE (6/28/23): FROM JMCSS:
Madison’s Samuel Latham finished 3rd in the nation at the Microsoft Office national championship.
Courtesy: JMCSS
JACKSON, Tenn. — A Jackson student is set to represent Tennessee in a national championship.
Samuel Latham, a Madison Academic sophomore, will be representing Tennessee in the US National Microsoft Office Championship in Orlando, Florida.
This is a competition that tests students’ skills on Microsoft Office, Word, Excel and PowerPoint.
Top students are invited to represent their respective states at the US National Championship.
During the event, participants will be given a high-resolution copy of a Word document, an Excel workbook, or a PowerPoint presentation to recreate.
The format each entrant will receive will be dependent on the exam each entrant won during the qualifying round contest.
Entrants will be allowed up to 50 minutes to recreate the document, workbook, or presentation they are provided.
The person with the highest score will be declared the winner. However, if there is a tie, the winner will be determined by who finished the fastest.
Latham shared how it feels to be representing Tennessee in the competition.
“I’m proud of it. Proud to be going to Florida. I’ve never been to Florida before. Proud to represent, and hopefully, I can show out and win,” Latham said.
Latham also explained to us how he has been preparing for this.
“Going back through the things that I have learned and making sure that I have them down. I’m going to do some studying the next week before I head out to Florida just to make sure that I do not forget any of the techniques that I have learned,” Latham said.
Garry Carroll, a computer teacher at Madison Academic, said that they have also been working on his typing speed.
He says that speed could play a factor in this national competition.
When Latham was competing for the state championship, it was actually his speed that won him the competition.
“They don’t understand at first why we are doing that because Samuel is a good example. He is not the only person that made a perfect score, but he did it in the fastest time because of his typing skills,” Carroll said.
Carroll said that several students have won the state championship in the past.
If Latham wins the national championship, he will be the school’s first ever national champion.
The Microsoft Office National Championships will take place June 26 through June 28.
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