ROYAL CITY — Five sixth-grade students from Royal Intermediate School competed in the Global Amazing Shake last week. One of them, Logan Piper, placed seventh overall.

“It was amazing to compete at that level,” he said. “I don’t compete in anything except Royal Grid Kids. This was the global level.”

Each year, the Ron Clark Academy in Atlanta, Georgia, puts on the National Amazing Shake. Due to the closure of schools this spring, the event was held virtually and included fifth- through eighth-grade students from around the world. The winner of this year’s Global Amazing Shake was from Honduras.

This was Piper’s first year competing in the Amazing Shake, and the school’s first year competing as well. While fifth- through eighth-graders are eligible to participate, only sixth-graders competed this year from Royal. In the school-level competition held in January, Piper placed in the top three.

While the competition at school prepared him for the global stage, there were some differences. Piper said that at school, some of the students didn’t really want to be involved and didn’t try that hard to progress to the next round. However, in the Global Amazing Shake all of the 280 students competing wanted to win.

One of the goals of the Amazing Shake is to put students in situations that test their professionalism, their ability to recover from mistakes and their ability to improvise. The events and challenges in the competition change from year to year and from one competition to the next. The competition consists of seven rounds that include a gauntlet, or series of challenges, that allow students to demonstrate various abilities. It also includes several different interviews where students are placed in a variety of situations. One event in the global competition this year included students eating breakfast while being watched and interviewed by judges.

Piper feels that his experience this year in the Amazing Shake has prepared him for job interviews, both in person and virtual. He also sees how it could help him in future classes in school.

“I want to do the history fair,” Piper said. “It will definitely help me. With the skills I’ve learned, it might get me some extra points. I also want to do FFA.”

Piper had the support of his family and school behind him as he completed last week.

“He worked his tail off,” said Piper’s mom Theresa Piper, a teacher at Royal Middle School. “It was really exciting. He did so much better than we expected.”

Theresa Piper said that being quarantined because of COVID-19 was a blessing in disguise for him.

Logan Piper thanked his teachers and principal for sponsoring him and allowing him to compete.

“I want to thank the other students that helped me get the courage and motivation to go out there and do my hardest,” he said.

Rachal Pinkerton may be reached via email at [email protected].