Brown University Student Competing on Jeopardy College Championships Airing This Week
Wednesday, February 09, 2022
A student at Brown University will be competing on Jeopardy's College Championships this week, adding to the growing list of students from the Ivy League institution appearing on the quiz show.
Max Niles, a Brown senior who will graduate in May with a bachelor’s degree in history and public policy, said he’d taken a couple of “Jeopardy!” trivia tests in the past, and nothing ever came of it.
However, according to Brown, four weeks after completing a 50-question online test during the Fall 2020 semester, he was invited to compete in a live game held over Zoom, where he did well enough to be added to the show’s contestant pool.
GET THE LATEST BREAKING NEWS HERE -- SIGN UP FOR GOLOCAL FREE DAILY EBLASTIn October 2021, Niles was selected as a contestant, and by November, he was on his way to Los Angeles to film two weeks’ worth of College Championship episodes.
About Niles
“It sunk in in so many different ways,” Niles said. “It was like, ‘Oh, I’m on the plane to L.A.! Oh, I’m on the ‘Jeopardy!’ stage! Oh, I just hit the buzzer — this is real!’”
According to Brown, Niles says he didn’t play much trivia growing up, nor did he find his community at Brown by way of trivia nights.
He is a self-proclaimed “Jeopardy!” nerd, though — Niles said he was raised on a steady diet of dinners spent with his mother and grandparents watching “Nightly News,” immediately followed by “Jeopardy!”
“I mean, we watched it every single night,” Niles said. “I loved it. And after playing along with my family, I thought, ‘Hey, I’m actually pretty good at this!’ I guess I’m very good at remembering random facts.”
At Brown, Niles has worked as the programming coordinator for the Ivy Film Festival and as a volunteer with the Brown Elementary Afterschool Mentoring program, spending many afternoons tutoring young students at William D’Abate Elementary School in Providence’s Olneyville neighborhood. He has served also as a member of Housing Opportunities for People Everywhere, a student-run Swearer Center program that combats homelessness.
Niles is among a small number of Brown community members to appear on “Jeopardy!” but he’s not the first.
Most recently, Dhruv Gaur — now a research data analyst at Brown’s Population Studies and Training Center —represented the University as a first-year student in 2018, ultimately capturing the College Championship.
Niles can’t currently share the results of his November taping sessions -- but all will be revealed this Friday, February 11, when his first College Championship appearance with host Mayim Bialik airs.
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