Seventeen students who attend Chandler Unified schools, competing with other Arizona students and against students from around the world, earned top honors at the first International Academic Decathlon during the World Youth Forum – Future Liberal Arts Leadership Summit 2025 in Macau, China in late August.

Teams were composed of standout academic decathletes and pentathletes from schools across the Metropolitan Phoenix area, including students from BASIS charter schools and CUSD.

The students formed two high school teams and two junior high school teams, according to a news release.

One of the high school teams took first place, making it a world champion, with the other team placing fifth.

The junior high eighth-grade team also won a world title, with the seventh-grade team placing second.

Basha High School’s decathlon and academic pentathlon coach, Joann Wuthrich, gave all the glory to the Chandler teens who competed.

“This achievement is a testament to the dedication, talent, and hard work of our students,” Wuthrich said.

The competition and the conference brought together students from across the globe to showcase critical thinking, collaboration, and leadership skills while solving real-world challenges, the release states.

The summit, themed “Future Liberal Arts Leaders,” focused on global collaboration, innovation, and the power of education to prepare today’s students for tomorrow’s challenges.

Each CUSD student who participated raised their own funds for the trip. Parents and/or guardians of the students accompanied their individual student or students to China.

 Please submit comments at yourvalley.net/letters or email them to AzOpinions@inusua.org. We are committed to publishing a wide variety of reader opinions, as long as they meet our Civility Guidelines.