Mono student’s game show future might be in Jeopardy, but his contributions are not

April 16, 2016 · 0 Comments

Mono’s Patrick Prochazka has always harboured dreams about being on Jeopardy.

So, when the enduring game show changed its rules barring Canadians from auditioning, the Grade 10 student admits he was “pretty bummed out about that.”

Until the rules change, however, he will have to be content with being put through his paces by Alex Trebek in Ottawa last year, at the Canadian National Geographic Challenge hosted by the television icon.

Patrick, who commutes to school daily from Mono to Pickering College in Newmarket is well on his way to earning his silver Duke of Edinburgh Award, an accolade system devised by Prince Philip to get students from across the Commonwealth more involved in the world around them.

Patrick recently received his bronze award, which he received through extensive volunteerism with area seniors, getting back to nature, and honing his skills on the piano and violin.

A key component of the plan is the “Adventurous Journey” which, at the bronze level, took Patrick and some of his fellow students to a camp near Huntsville where they focused on canoeing, kayaking and camping. He met his requirements for sports and recreation being a part of Pickering College’s soccer and basketball teams, while the volunteering component was met working at a retirement home.

“I hadn’t heard of the Duke of Edinburgh Award before [I came to Pickering College in Grade 7],” he says. “It was something our phys-ed teacher said we had to do for 10 per cent of our mark, but it turned out to be quite rewarding. There are so many values you get out of it. You see the value of hard work and persistence.

“The superficial thing about it is the award and how it will look on your résumé, but it goes deeper than that. It goes down to keeping consistency in your life and being consistent in your goals. It is a way to force you to keep going and not to stop or hold yourself back, or change your mind too much.”

In Mono, Patrick says he and his family “live in the middle of the forest” and growing up that helped him engage with nature, develop skills about learning about your surroundings, and an appreciation of “seeing every year how nature changes.”

“Kind of living in the middle of nowhere, you learn survival skills on the side as well, so that really helped with the camping component of the Duke of Ed,” he laughs.

But, along the way, he has acquired pretty impressive chops when it comes to math, science, and geography. He tangles with older students at large scale math and science fairs and competitions – often coming out on top – and these skills led to the big time with Trebek.

“My teacher was the first to introduce me to the geography challenge and everybody participated in a school round, then the top people from each classroom went to the class round, and I got to take an online provincial test. We were in Iceland on a geography trip, so I did the provincial challenge in Iceland, which was a cool add-on experience. After that, I was one of the 20 who got to go on to the Nationals hosted by Alex Trebek.

“It was the first time I was on a big game show stage and it was kind of the first national trivia contests I have been to and it was in one of the fields I am quite passionate about. It was really a fun experience and I hope in the near future I can participate in shows like Jeopardy, assuming of course they change their rules about that!”

By Brock Weir