MATTAWA — Wahluke Junior High Principal John Muchlinski said the idea behind the Amazing Shake is that communication skills are as crucial to young people as academic skills.

“Whatever (career) you choose, you’re going to have to interact with people, and you’re going to have to carry on conversations. And that’s what this is about, is being able to interact with people, be polite, carry on conversations, know follow-up questions, and those kinds of things that you don’t necessarily get in your standard academic class,” Muchlinski said.

Feb. 3 was the second round for the Amazing Shake, with 100 WJHS students having survived what Muchlinski called the “mini-gauntlet” in December. The 100 were pared down to 25, and a follow-up competition last week cut that to 10. The top 10 will advance to national competition in Atlanta, Georgia later this year.

Successful communication requires the ability to cope with unexpected situations, and the Amazing Shake provides a lot of that. Students faced about 20 tasks to perform, requiring different skills.

“Some of (the topics) they know about, and some they don’t,” Muchlinski said. “And there are surprises. Some of the stations, they don’t know what’s happening. So, they have to be able to improvise. The idea is customer service – being able to have a conversation, carry on a conversation, explain, persuade, recall. Those soft skills are what we’re working on.”

Participants were confronted with a table full of objects, asked to pick one at random and then sell it to the judges. They had to carry on a conversation with a stranger, explain and demonstrate how to perform CPR, discuss a topic in which they played devil’s advocate, show their knowledge of current events. among many other tasks. About 60 seconds were allotted to each task.

It was the first time through the program for sixth-grader Angel Antunez, and he said even though it was a challenge it was a good experience. It forces junior high students to try things they’ve never tried before, learn how to do them and gain confidence in the process.

“We get so much out of this,” he said. “You can get out of that shell you thought you could never get out of.”

Sixth-grader Armando Quiroz said it was a bigger challenge than he anticipated – for one thing, the students faced way more tasks than he expected.

“I thought it would be totally different,” he said.

It was the first Amazing Shake for judge Jerry Puentes, whose job was to engage each participant in conversation and score their responses.

“It’s awesome,” Puentes said. “These are skills they’ll be able to use in life.”

Junior high student Deysi Domingo said it’s the kind of program where students learn from their experiences.

“If I do it next time I’ll be better,” she said.

“I’ve seen (participants) ask some good, really deep questions,” judge Ashley Carter said. “But not right away. It takes a while.”

Muchlinksi said the challenge allows the students to show what they can do.

“I love walking around watching our kids perform,” he said. “Because it’s really amazing how when you raise expectations for students like this, they really rise up and they meet those expectations. They’ll tell you they’re nervous. They’ll tell you they’re scared. But once they get on the floor, it’s amazing how they really rise up and do a fantastic job. It’s cool.”

Cheryl Schweizer can be reached via email at [email protected].