MIDDLE SCHOOL TEAM EARNS NATIONAL RECOGNITION IN VOCABULARY COMPETITION

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March 12, 2026

For information on admission to Notre Dame Prep, please click here.

Sixth grader Mazen Sheqwara achieves rare perfect score in WordMasters Challenge; seventh graders place eighth nationwide.

Students from Notre Dame Prep’s middle school earned national recognition in the latest meet of the WordMasters Challenge™, a rigorous vocabulary competition that engages nearly 125,000 students each year.

A seventh-grade team from Notre Dame Prep achieved highest honors, scoring 175 out of a possible 200 points in the second of three meets this year. The score placed the team eighth in the nation in the competition’s challenging Blue Division.

Individually, sixth-grader Mazen Sheqwara earned a perfect score of 20, a distinction achieved by only 53 sixth graders nationwide in the meet. Sixth-grader Oliver Caloia also posted an outstanding performance, contributing to the team’s success.

Students prepared for the competition under the guidance of teachers Deirdre Schiefer and Kelly Simon.

“WordMasters challenges students to think beyond memorizing vocabulary,” Schiefer said. “They must recognize relationships between words and apply logical reasoning to solve complex analogies.”

A challenge in language and logic

The WordMasters Challenge™ encourages students to study advanced vocabulary and apply their knowledge to solve analogies that test critical thinking. By analyzing relationships between words, students develop both analytical and metaphorical reasoning skills.

Although many analogy programs are designed for high school students, WordMasters materials are created specifically for students in grades three through eight, making it a strong extension of classroom language arts instruction.

Strength in language arts

Notre Dame Prep’s performance reflects the strength of its language arts program across the lower, middle and upper schools, where students build vocabulary, reading comprehension and writing skills while developing habits of critical thinking.

“These competitions reinforce the work students are doing every day in class,” Simon said. “They encourage curiosity about language and reward careful reading and thoughtful analysis.”

The WordMasters Challenge includes three meets during the school year, giving teams multiple opportunities to build on their results while continuing to sharpen their language and reasoning skills.

For information on admission to Notre Dame Prep, please click here.

Comments or questions? mkelly@ndpma.org

About Notre Dame Preparatory School
"At Notre Dame Prep, we inspire our students to become the best versions of themselves. We challenge them through an experience of academic excellence, focused on active, project-based learning. We invite them to explore a world of opportunities beyond the classroom. We guide them as they grow in spirituality within a community strong in its Catholic and Marist identity."

Notre Dame Preparatory School is a private, Catholic, independent, coeducational day school located in Oakland County. Notre Dame Preparatory School's upper school enrolls students in grades nine through twelve and has been named one of the nation's best 50 Catholic high schools (Acton Institute) four times since 2005. Notre Dame Prep's middle and lower schools enroll students in pre-kindergarten through grade eight. All three schools are International Baccalaureate "World Schools." NDP is conducted by the Marist Fathers and Brothers and is accredited by the Independent Schools Association of the Central States and the National Association of Independent Schools. For more on Notre Dame Preparatory School, visit the school’s home page at www.ndpma.org.