St. Mary’s College of Maryland hosted the 18th Annual Southern Maryland (SOMD) Brain Bee on March 7, 2026. The Brain Bee is a neuroscience competition for high schoolers that encourages students to explore neuroscience and to learn more about neuroscience academic opportunities. The SOMD Brain Bee, an officially sanctioned event of the International Brain Bee, was founded by Dr. Anne Marie Brady ‘93. At this year’s SOMD Brain Bee, 25 high school students competed to test their neuroscience knowledge in individual and team rounds, each designed to challenge their understanding of the brain.
The SOMD Brain Bee had three rounds, the first focused on general neuroscience topics, the second focused on brain anatomy, and the third focused on more specific topics. The Braniacs, a group of neuroscience and psychology students, have worked alongside Associate Professor of Neuroscience and Chair of the Program, Dr. Elizabeth Leininger, since January to organize and run the event. Brainiac Julia Gaevsky ‘26 emceed the event. After Julia read the question aloud, participants had 30 seconds to write their responses on their whiteboards. Fellow Brainiacs Em Allan ‘27, Josie Gibbons ‘27, and Presley Pickeral ‘26 scored each answer. Due to the volume of competitors, we had several student volunteers, Wendy Contreras ‘26, Nasir Howard ‘28, Gerardo Morales ’26, Veronica Velez ‘27, and Brooklyn Kimball ‘27, who also helped to score answers and take photos of the event.
Due to interest from both within and beyond the Southern Maryland area, students competed individually as in-chapter or outside-of-chapter competitors. Sam G., who competed with his program from the Dr. James A. Forrest Career & Technology Center, earned first place in the individual competition and was awarded $500 to cover registration and travel expenses for the USA Brain Bee at UC Irvine. Olivia M. from North Harford High School won in the outside-of-chapter category. Additionally, teammates Chris K. and Lakshith S. from Centennial High School won the group competition. Every guest received a door prize raffle ticket, with prizes awarded to the first-place winners in both the individual and team categories.
Students, do you want to become a Brainiac for the 19th Annual Southern Maryland Brain Bee? If so, register for NEUR 305 in Spring 2027!
