Illinois—Harry Haghanegi, one of the youngest Jeopardy! contestants ever, is an active member of the Pathfinder Club at the North Shore Church in Chicago.

In March of this year about 10,000 10- to 12-year-old children took an online test for Jeopardy! Kids Week. Two hundred high scorers were selected for live auditions and a second test. Only 15 kids made it to the show. Harry is the sole representative from Illinois, and one of only two from the region. He was on Jeopardy! Kids Week 2007, which aired the week of October 8. Harry had the lead going into Final Jeopardy, but was stumped on a question about the book, Sarah Plain and Tall. He finished in second place.

Harry's favorite subject in his home-school curriculum is science. This past summer he studied genetics on his own, even extracting DNA from a strawberry.

"At first I was interested in genetics because I wanted to find out if recreating dinosaurs was really possible," Harry says, "but now I want to become a geneticist to help others."

As a bilingual child who helped welcome the Olympic Committee to Chicago, Harry plans to be a full-fledged geneticist by 2016 when he hopes the Summer Olympics will be held in Chicago.

Kathy Thomas, North Shore Church communication secretary