Behind the Buzzer
By Kristen Bailey and Steven Norris updated april 2, 2018
Over the years, plenty of Yellow Jackets have had their brains, ingenuity, and personality highlighted on TV. On Wednesday, April 11, first-year materials science and engineering student Rishab Jain will represent the Institute as a contestant in the Jeopardy! College Championship.
Rishab Jain. Photo courtesy of Jeopardy!
Tune in to see how he fares, and take a look at other places Tech students and alumni have popped up on game shows over the years.
Kristen Jolley
Jeopardy!
Kristen Jolley, a 2013 graduate, placed third in College Jeopardy! while she was studying biology at Tech in 2013. She had tried out for Teen Jeopardy! in high school and College Jeopardy! another time before making it on the show.
A Team Effort
The Price is Right
A group of Tech graduates and friends went up against alumni from the University of Georgia in a March 2017 episode. (Front Row, L to R: Trisha Long, Rachel Smith, Amanda Pritchett, Liz Foster. Back Row, L to R: David Lansing, Stephen Thompson, David Pritchett, Brian Alexy.)
Nkosi Kee
Family Feud
Nkosie Kee, a second-year computer science major, impressed Steve Harvey with his college plans during his first appearance on Family Feud in 2015 — watch the exchange. Kee's family was on Feud again in 2016.
Julie Broadus
The Voice
Julie Broadus, a second-year industrial engineering student, made it to the blind auditions round of The Voice in 2015, just before starting her first year at Tech. She performed "Brand New Key," a song originally recorded by the artist Melanie in 1971.
Kristin Patterson Edmunds
Hollywood Squares
Kristin Patterson Edmunds, a 1999 management graduate, appeared in the Hollywood Squares College Tournament in November 1999. She was selected from an audition that took place on campus at the Student Center.
Meoshe Williams
Wheel of Fortune
Meoshe Williams, a 2009 mathematics graduate and geometry teacher, tried her luck on Wheel of Fortune in 2014. It wasn't her first time on a game show stage, though. She also appeared on The Price is Right in 2009.
Nick Selby
Weet Ik Veel
Selby's appearance was unconventional in that he was part of a question, not a contestant. The Dutch show pits at-home competitors against celebrities to answer questions often supported by photos and video clips. Host Linda De Mol prefaced Selby's stirring 2013 Convocation speech by saying, "This first-year university student at Georgia Tech has a task he takes very seriously." After the clip plays, Dutch newscaster Sofie Van Den Enk mentions how inspiring the video is with a laugh. The panel is given multiple choice options of what type of speech it represents, the answer being "rhetoric."
Martin Poteralski
Who Wants To Be A Millionaire
Poteralski, a 1994 architecture graduate, was a semifinalist on College Jeopardy! and also had an interesting experience with Who Wants To Be A Millionaire. In his first appearance, he answered incorrectly and went home with nothing. He was invited back on a special episode of previous contestants who had lost, though, and won $250,000.
Jennifer Hawbaker, Peter Ketterman, Corey Rockwell, and Larry Stewart
Wheel of Fortune
In 1994, four Tech students participated in Wheel’s College Week Tournament following a contestant search on campus. The finalists spent five days in Disneyworld, filmed 10 shows in two days, and ultimately took home the tournament trophy on the final day, winning $75,000 for Georgia Tech.
Craig Forest
American Inventor
Craig Forest (right), a Tech graduate and associate professor in bioengineering, made it to the finals of American Inventor with colleague David Moeller in 2007 for their bicycle storage invention, The Claw.
