Mark McGivern, an eighth-grader at Southwest Middle School in Albert Lea, has qualified as a semi-finalist for the Minnesota Geographic Bee being held at St. Cloud State University on Friday.

Bees were held in schools with fourth- through eighth-grade students throughout the state to determine each school’s winners. 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 Dependents 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 state winner will receive $100, the “National Geographic Collegiate Atlas of the World” and a trip to Washington, D.C., where he or she will represent Minnesota in the national finals at the National Geographic Society headquarters in May. The first-place national winner will receive a $25,000 scholarship and other prizes.

McGivern is the son of John McGivern and Kristen McGivern.