Mastering Memory Santa Clarita boy was a finalist for $10,000 memory championship
A Santa Clarita fifth-grader recently embarked on a voyage as a national memory master finalist, competing on the open sea. Local resident Christopher Rodriguez, 11, is one of 16 finalists in the National Memory Master competition. On May 2, Christopher competed in three rounds of academic memory testing during a five-day cruise to the Bahamas aboard the Carnival cruise ship Victory. Each of the finalists received two free tickets to the cruise and $800 in traveling money.
The 16 finalists have already been through a rigorous series of local and regional competitions to reach the finals. Christopher’s presentation to reach this point was a first-person account of European history during the Middle Ages from the perspective of Charlemagne.
The three-round championship will cover disciplines such as math, science, English grammar, history, Latin and geography.
The National Memory Master competition is hosted by Classical Conversations®, a classical education resource used by homeschoolers in all 50 states and 14 foreign countries. Classical Conversations now has more than 93,000 students enrolled in its tutoring programs.
Christopher attends the Classical Conversations community in Santa Clarita. He is the son of Howard and Hosanna Rodriguez and the oldest of their four children. Christopher is finishing his third year as both a Classical Conversations, or CC, student and a Memory Master.
“Christopher is super committed to NMM and loves the challenge,” his mother said. “Obviously, he is great at memorizing and is an enthusiastic learner. He is a taskmaster and has successfully learned to set goals by breaking things down into doable daily pieces.”
In his spare time, Christopher enjoys swimming, climbing trees, astronomy club, particle physics, quantum mechanics and reading, especially books by Madeleine L’Engle, Charles Dickens, C.S. Lewis, J.R.R. Tolkien, P.G. Wodehouse, Sean Carroll and Andrew Peterson.
For more information, visit www.classicalconversations.com.
Comments
ADVERTISE WITH US
Mark Shramek A Vision for Growth, Connection, and Community Impact
As the newly appointed chairman of the Valley Industry Association, Mark Shramek brings a focused, collaborative approach to strengthening the business community across Santa Clarita and the surrounding region.Mark did not originally set out to become chairman. After...
Presenters with a Passion for History Prepare for St. Francis Dam Site Tour in May
March is the month when the Santa Clarita Valley Historical Society traditionally holds its annual tour at the site of the St. Francis Dam disaster in San Francisquito Canyon. The dam failed near midnight on March 12, 1928 and the flood waters that sluiced through the...
Getting to know Relay For Life of Santa Clarita Valley/American Cancer Society
ABOUT US Relay For Life of Santa Clarita Valley is the local community fundraising and awareness event for the American Cancer Society (ACS). Through Relay, we bring together neighbors, schools, businesses, caregivers, cancer survivors, volunteers, and community...


