UIL consists of competitions that also include academic topics in which students interested can participate by contacting the coaches/teachers of that topic. These competitions are in test form and largely happen during the spring semester where throughout San Antonio students must participate in two invitational competitions to be allowed into the district-level competition.
“I got interested because coming back from Covid there really wasn’t much to do at school and Ms. Apodaca published it (UIL Current Issue & Events) on the newsletter and put up posters around school and I thought like, ‘Hey, I like current events,'” senior Baala said. “I kept up with the news a lot and stayed up to date with magazines so it just seemed perfect.”
Several other students also compete in UIL.
Senior Alyssa said, “UIL is a competition based organization for students in Texas. UIL has a competition for pretty much anything, like sports and academics.”
Many competitive students find that certain class that is just the right level of fun and challenging. This is the perfect way for them to get ahead of the course or further understand the material by delving deeper than class material.
“I joined to get ahead in chemistry, mostly,” senior Stefan said. “That year I did very well, I placed 5th at the district competition and the other four above me were seniors and juniors from my school, so I was already pretty high up with my learning for UIL.”
Enjoying time with friends, especially ones that like the same subject, participate in these competitions because it is a way of learning the subject and with a group that will keep it entertaining.
“This year is my first year in UIL, before this year I hadn’t known about this [UIL competitions],” said Sophomore Darshan, “I originally joined because it sounded like a fun activity especially since all my friends are in it.”
Teams will be competing at the district UIL Academic meet at O’Connor High School on April 5-6.
UIL Academics List (2023-2024):
| Mr. Bosnic | Science* |
| Ms. Apodaca | Current Issue & Events |
| Literary Criticism* | |
| Social Studies* | |
| Mr. Kurzban | Mathematics |
| Number Sense | |
| Ms. Epstein | Spelling & Vocabulary |
| Ms. Kelling | Copy Editing |
| Editorial | |
| Feature Writing | |
| Headline Writing | |
| Ready Writing | |
| News Writing | |
| Mr. Moore | Computer Science |
| Ms. Schofield | Calculator Application |
| Mr. Brahm | Prose and Poetry✶ |
✶ tryouts at start of year