How did you react when you were selected for the College Championship?
Um, I was pretty excited. I actually found out on my 21st birthday. So, I had a little bit more to celebrate, uh, that day, but, uh, it was--it was pretty exciting. I screamed a little bit. Told my roommate. She screamed a little bit, so...
Do you think being on Jeopardy! will help you land a job?
Um, I hope it does. The one interview that I've had since, uh, I found out I was going to be on was with a Jeopardy! fan, and he was pretty excited that I was going to be on, so... hopefully, it'll do some good for me!
What is your dream category?
Pretty much anything with geography. I-I love geography. Maybe something--maybe something with Disney. Um, I, uh, I've got a pretty solid Disney, uh, knowledge, so... anything like that'd be good.
Where do you hope to be in ten years?
Um, in ten years, uh, I want to have a family and a great job and I don't really know, uh, where I want to be working or what I want to be doing, but I just want to be doing something that I really love. |
2010-B College Championship quarterfinalist: $5,000 + a Nintendo Wii + the Wii Jeopardy! game.
Last name pronounced like "koll-ANN-jel-o".
Olivia Colangelo
University of Notre Dame
November 12, 2010
I ended up being the alternate for finals day, so I had to get up early again, and head to the studio with everyone that advanced. I’m not going to lie, having to get ready and go to the studio, knowing in all likelihood I was not going to be able to compete was one of the hardest things I have ever done, but when I took the time to think about it, I am very happy with my performance, because going in, I told myself I wanted to finish the first day with $15,000; I had no way of knowing what a high scoring tournament was ahead of us. Plus, I got to go back to the studio and play with the buzzers again in the rehearsal game! That really reminded me why I was there in the first place: not because I wanted to win $100,000, even though it would have been nice, but because I love answering questions. When I got up behind the podium with the buzzer in my hand, I forgot to be upset about being the alternate, realized I was still having one of the most memorable experiences of my life, and just decided to soak it all in.
At my audition, I had said if I won the $100,000, I was going to go on a shoe and purse shopping spree. I’m still considering doing that with my $5,000, but it will most likely end up in the bank, saved up for a rainy day (Or maybe for a trip. Or maybe just a trip to Nordstrom.), but like I said, in the end, the money didn’t matter to me, because I got to have a great time doing something that I really love.
November 8, 2010
My plane arrived in Burbank Saturday afternoon, and after checking into our hotel, my parents and I decided to go walk around Universal’s CityWalk to shop and grab something to eat. After a delicious sandwich, some souvenir shopping, partaking in that oh-so LA pastime of frozen yogurt eating, and a movie, we headed back to the hotel, jetlagged and ready for bed.
Sunday was a free day, and being the Disney kid I’m still very proud to admit that, at 21, I am, we headed to Disneyland for the day. We decided to do California Adventure, since none of us had been there before, and they have pretty much all of our favorite attractions from Disney World. I think being in a place that I truly love all day really helped me to relax and kind of forget about any pressure for the show, and just got me excited for the next day.
After an early wake up call, plus a scone and a morning Diet Coke, I headed to the lobby excited to make 15 new friends (well, 14 new friends: Hans and I actually competed against each other at the 2004 National Geographic Bee, but we were assured that it was okay, since we hadn’t talked to each other beforehand, and we simply wouldn’t be playing each other in the quarterfinals).
A quick bus ride and we were at the studio. We all grabbed some breakfast in the green room and had our makeup done, then went out to shoot some promos and videos for the website. We had two rehearsal rounds, and all of a sudden, it was time to announce the pairings for the first show. I had been hoping to be in the first show, because I didn’t want to have to think about filming while sitting in the green room all day, so I was very excited when I found out that I was in fact going on for the first show, in between Sid and Steve.
I had been doing a lot of reading about Jeopardy! before heading out for the taping, and it seemed like all everyone kept talking about was how small the stage was, so I was expecting that…I was shocked at how beautiful the set was, and how big the board where the questions appear are, but mostly just at the fact that I was standing behind a podium, on the Jeopardy! set, about to film an episode of one of my favorite TV shows of all time. I was also surprised at how quickly the show moves once the game starts. I can probably only remember 5 or 6 of the questions I actually answered during the game (although I will always remember my Final question: What is Heinz?, and thinking I would be disowned if I answered it incorrectly, considering I live about 30 minutes from the address given in the clue), and suddenly it was over, and we were standing talking to Alex, and all I could do was wait to see how the other games turned out.
November 5, 2010
My name is Olivia Colangelo, and I am beyond excited to represent the University of Notre Dame in this year’s College Championship. I’m currently a junior at Notre Dame studying Civil Engineering, although I’m originally from a suburb of Pittsburgh. At school, I am the president of my dorm, play trombone in a concert band, and am a member of our chapters of SWE and ASCE, but when I’m not doing homework or at a meeting, you can usually find me in the gym, watching reruns on TVLand, reading (especially about the British Monarchy so I can bore my roommate with some more facts about Queen Elizabeth II), or playing quizzes on Sporcle.com with my friends.
I’ve been watching Jeopardy! almost every night for as long as I can remember, mostly due to the influence of some Jeopardy!-loving grandparents, and I’ve wanted to be a contestant for about as long. In fact, in middle school and high school, when asked the standard "where do you want to be in 10 years?” questions, I gave the standard "have a great job and family” answer, but also always threw "and be a Jeopardy! contestant” in there. However, I was never able to audition until the online test was introduced in 2006. I signed up to take the first Teen Tournament test I could, and I’ve taken every online test I was eligible for since then. Once, I even rescheduled a group meeting because it fell during the test - this was serious business.
My audition in Chicago in May fell the day after my finals ended, so my dad and I packed up the car and headed the 90 minutes west for the audition. This was my second time auditioning in Chicago (actually, the first time I auditioned, 2009 college champ Patrick Tucker, also from Notre Dame, was in the same audition as me!), and I was mostly just amazed at how much less nervous I was this time around. I was able to relax and have a lot of fun with the process, which I really think ended up helping my performance. After the audition, though, I kind of forgot about trivia and calls and California, because I left 5 days later for Spain for the summer as part of our College of Engineering study abroad program.
I was pretty sure they had said they would call sometime in "late summer” at my audition, so by the time I went back to school in August, I had given up hope and was prepared to register for the test again ASAP. But on Thursday night, September 16th, I checked my phone at about 9:30 to see that I had missed a call from a number I didn’t recognize, but that my phone told me was located in Culver City, CA. The number also left me a message. "Hi Olivia, this is Maggie calling from Jeopardy!..” I listened, but I had pretty much checked out as soon as I saw where the call was coming from. I knew it was after the business day in LA, but I decided to call and leave a message anyway, then wait for appropriate business time to call again on Friday, although Maggie called me back before I even had a chance the next day, and all of a sudden, it was official. I was going to be on Jeopardy!
As far as studying, I haven’t been doing much because midterms happened to take up most of my time the past few weeks (though I guess if there are any questions on structural systems, differential equations, or environmental risk assessment, I’ll own the competition), but I was lucky enough to go on a field trip that involved two 17 hour bus rides, so that time was semi-productive for brushing up on a few things. Also, as always, I’ve been watching the show every night; if nothing else, it’s a great study break. At this point, I feel so lucky and honored to have made it this far, and to take a nice trip the first half of my fall break, I’m not all too worried about where I’ll place; I’ll be happy however it works out, and I can’t wait to get started! |
