James Ostergaard, an eighth grade student at St. Jerome Regional School, Tamaqua, has been notified by the National Georgraphic Society that he is a semifinalist eligible to compete in the 2010 Pennsylvania Geographic Bee, sponsored by Google and Plum Creek.

Bees were held in schools with 4-8 grade students throughout the state to determine each school's Geographic winner. School-level winners then took a qualifying test, which they submitted to the National Geographic Society.In each of the 50 states, as well as the District of Columbia, the Department of Defense Dependent Schools, and the U.S. territories, the National Geographic Society invited the students with the top 100 scores to compete at the state level.The 2010 Pennsylvania Bee will be at Penn State's University Park campus on Friday, April 9.The winner of the state Bee will receive $100, the "National Geographic Collegiate Atlas of the World", and a trip to Washinton, D.C, where he or she will represent Pa. in the national finals on May 25-26.