Friday Harbor’s Kasey Rasmussen competes April 9 in state Geo Bee

Friday Harbor's Kasey Rasmussen will have one more shot at the state title. An eighth-grader at Friday Harbor Middle School, Kasey earned a third consecutive trip to the state Geographic Bee finals on the strength of a competitive written exam.

Friday Harbor’s Kasey Rasmussen will have one more shot at the state title.

An eighth-grader at Friday Harbor Middle School, Kasey earned a third consecutive trip to the state Geographic Bee finals on the strength of a competitive written exam.

A three-time middle school Geo Bee champion, Kasey qualified for the state finals by winning the school contest and then earning one of the top 100 scores on that written exam, which every school champion must take in order to compete for the state title.

Sponsored by Google and Plum Creek Timber Company, the 2010 Washington state Geographic Bee features the state’s top 100 geography students, fourth through eighth grades, competing for the state crown and a slot in the national finals at the National Geographic Society’s headquarters in Washington, D.C., May 25-26. The state competition will take place April 9 on the campus of Pacific Lutheran University.

In addition to a trip to Washington, D.C., the state champion will receive $100 and a “National Geographic Collegiate Atlas of the World.” The winner of the national contest receives a $25,000 college scholarship, a lifetime membership in the National Geographic Society, and an all-expense paid excursion (parent or guardian included) to the Galapagos Islands.

Kasey won’t be the only student from the San Juans competing in the state finals. Orcas Island’s Brigid Ehrmantraut, a seventh-grader, qualified for the state competition as well. As an eighth-grader, however, Kasey will be too old to compete next year and the state finals on April 9 will be her last.

Kasey is the daughter of Scott and Kris Rasmussen of Friday Harbor. Her father is a reporter for The Journal of the San Juan Islands.