Name: Brandon Sherman
Major: Statistics and Math
Year: Senior
Hometown: Randolph, NJ
HC: So, what activities are you involved in on campus?
Brandon: Mostly Quiz Bowl.
HC: What is Quiz Bowl?
Brandon: We host and compete against other schools in trivia competitions. It’s like team Jeopardy, but the questions get a lot more “out there.”
HC: What do you mean by “out there?”
Brandon: They sometimes ask really weird history questions about moments in history people have never heard about before. Some of our favorite ones involve strange moments in religious history. We also get pop culture questions that we call “trash.” Those tend to be about movies, music videos, or video games.
HC: Ah great, my Her Campus category is known as “trash.” Lovely.
Brandon: Haha, sorry.
HC: So what are the usual types of questions you get?
Brandon: They’re mostly academic in nature. We get everything from history, math, art history, and philosophy, to literature.
HC: Wow. You must need a pretty broad knowledge base for that. Is there a national Quiz Bowl competition?
Brandon: Yeah, actually Pitt took four people to nationals in Atlanta, Georgia this past weekend and we placed 5th overall.
HC: Wow! That’s really impressive!
Brandon: Yeah, we couldn’t have done it without some really talented freshmen. Shout out to Ben, Brianna, and Neil for doing such a great job.
HC: What other schools were there?
Brandon: Carnegie Mellon, Stanford, U. Chicago, and there were two schools from Canada as well. There were more, but I can’t remember them all.
HC: That’s really neat. So how can people get involved?
Brandon: If you have a wide variety of knowledge and want to show it off, come to one of our meetings. No prior experience is required! Since we just got back from nationals, your best bet is to find us at the fall Activities Fair in August to get the full experience. You can also find a few of us at bar trivia nights.
HC: Yeah, I can imagine it would be tough this time of year since you just got back from nationals.
Brandon: The Fall is definitely better. We have been working hard to host competitions and go to competitions at other schools. It’s a lot of fun.
HC: So how do you fundraise to go to Atlanta and all of these schools to compete? Do you just hustle people during bar trivia?
Brandon: Haha, no. We actually make our money from hosting high school Quiz Bowl tournaments. We get schools from Pennsylvania, Ohio, and, West Virginia. I’m the tournament director. So I basically plan everything and run the show. It’s fun for the kids and for us.
HC: That’s awesome. So what else are you involved in on campus?
Brandon: I am also an officer in Pitt Dr. Who Club. We meet on Saturdays in the Cathedral at 7:00 pm. We watch both new episodes as well as classics.
HC: Favorite Doctor?
Brandon: The third Doctor. Jon Pertwee is the James Bond of Doctors.
HC: That sounds intense. So what do you do in your spare time?
Brandon: During those few moments that I do have free time, I drink with friends, study, and hang out in coffee shops even though I’m not a hipster.
Image Credit: Images taken from Brandon’s Facebook