The California Academic Decathlon Association is a statewide non-profit organization that encourages enthusiasm for learning by acknowledging academic excellence among California high school students of different achievement levels. This is accomplished by providing local, regional and state multidisciplinary academic competitions based on the Academic Decathlon® curricula. All California public and private high schools are eligible to compete. Teams of students compete in ten areas: art, economics, essay, interview, literature, mathematics, music, science, social science and speech which are based on a relevant and challenging theme each year. A unique aspect of the program is that teams are composed of students from all academic achievement levels. Winning teams advance through the local, regional, and state levels of competition. The culminating event at the regional and state competitions is the exhilarating award ceremony where gold, silver and bronze medals are presented to the top students in each category in every event in each division. The overall highest scoring team is awarded the state champion team trophy. This team will then compete against other state champions at the United States Academic Decathlon® National Final Competition which is hosted by a different state each year.