The 10th-graders in Tenaya Snider’s seventh period English class at Canyon del Oro High School were watching a video of a speech for a lesson on rhetorical analysis when Snider’s phone rang.
It was Jan. 7. Snider remembers because it was “a day I will not forget,” she said.
She excused herself into the back office to take the call. When she returned, her students knew something was up.
She said they asked her, “You got on ‘Jeopardy!,’ didn’t you?”
They were correct.
“It was surreal,” Snider said.
Snider was one of 70,000 people who applied online to be a participant on the popular game show that’s aired on television since the 1960s. Of those people, 3,000 were invited to a live audition.
After the audition process, which included answering 50 questions in 7 seconds or less per question, Snider participated in a mock game and an interview. About 400 people made it onto the show.
Snider is one of 15 teachers invited. The episode in which she appears is airing Thursday, May 5, as part of the “Jeopardy!” Teachers Tournament. The grand prize is $100,000.
“Being on ‘Jeopardy!’ has been my life dream,” Snider said. She has been trying every year since she was 16 to get on the show.
She said she first started watching the program when she was 8 years old. “I always watched it with my dad when I was little,” she said.
One of the highlights of the whole experience was making friends with other teachers , Snider said.
And then there was meeting host Alex Trebek. She said he asked the teachers about what goes on in classrooms, but she didn’t remember saying anything specific in return.
“The entire day is such a blur,” she said.
Snider filmed the show in February over rodeo break. Since then, people have been trying to get her to give hints about the outcome.
When asked Wednesday about how she did, Snider said, “You can watch tomorrow night and find out.”
Her colleagues and students plan on watching the show, she said.
Ann Bonar, the English department head at CDO, has faith in Snider’s abilities. “She just knows so much about so many random topics,” Bonar said. “We’re all guessing that she did very well,.”
Snider said in a way, it feels strange to have accomplished such a huge life goal that she’s been chasing for so long. She used to always collect random facts to prepare for ‘Jeopardy!.’
“It’s been very weird to not have to do that anymore,” she said.
Nevertheless, she encouraged others to chase their dreams.
“If you have a dream, try to pursue it, because sometimes, it really does come true,” she said.
