Steele students compete at Microsoft Office National Championship

Northwest ISD is proud to recognize four Steele Early College High School students who recently competed at the Microsoft Office Specialist U.S. National Championship, in Grapevine. Valerie Abai, Noah Kiura, Leilani Lopez and Aryan Singh all represented Texas at the national championships held at the Gaylord Texan Resort with three of the students placing in the top 10 of their events.

Noah Kiura was the top finisher for Steele, taking third place in the Microsoft PowerPoint (Office 2019) event, earning himself a $1,000 cash prize. Valerie Abai finished in fourth place in the Microsoft PowerPoint (Microsoft 365 Apps) competition, and Leilani Lopez finished sixth in the Microsoft Word (Microsoft 365 Apps) event.

Across the country, more than 98,500 students ages 13 to 22 entered the competition by submitting a qualified, passing score on one of certification exams for Microsoft Word, Excel or PowerPoint. There are two qualifying periods to enter: the Fall Qualifier and the Spring Qualifier. At the end of each competition qualifying round, invitations are issued to the students with the top scores in their exam category, for a total of twelve students from each state possible. This means that four of Texas’ 12 competitors came from Steele ECHS.

During the live competitive national championships, finalists were given a printed copy of a document, spreadsheet, or presentation to recreate along with printed instructions and digital assets. They were then scored according to the accuracy of the recreation compared to the original. 

Congratulations to Valeria, Noah, Leilani and Aryan, as well as their teachers and sponsors, Sarah Zeballos and Nick Escarsega!