By: Courtney Lyons, Contributor
On Thursday Oct. 19 at 7 p.m., this stellar “Jeopardy!” champion will speak at the University at Buffalo’s (UB) North Campus “Who is Amy Schneider?” event.
As part of UB’s Distinguished Speakers Series, which has boasted renowned speakers from then-former Vice President Joe Biden to Malala Yousafzai since its 1987 inception, Schneider will be the first of four guests for the 2023-24 school year. After being a familiar face in living rooms for eight consecutive weeks in 2021 and 2022 on the ubiquitous quiz show, Schneider captivated audiences with her near-flawless final “Jeopardy!” record and quickness with the infamous signaling devices.
Beyond her intellectual prowess, Schneider is a boundary breaker. She is the winningest woman to ever compete on The Alex Trebek Stage, having amassed $1.6 million in her “Jeopardy!” tenure. Schneider is also the first openly transgender contestant to fulfill the five-game win streak to qualify for the Tournament of Champions. She subsequently won that 2022 tournament and competed among the show’s elite on “Jeopardy!” masters earlier this year: never shying from her identity, Scheider provided a much-needed voice on a national stage for an underrepresented community.
A software engineer turned author, Schneider recently wrote a memoir with an apt allusion to her claim to fame entitled “In the Form of a Question: The Joys and Rewards of a Curious Life.” The book release is Oct. 3, granting Buffalonians the pleasure of being one of the first to hear from the author after the book is released to the public.
The ALANA Student Center, in collaboration with Canisius Unity, will provide tickets and transportation to UB’s Center for the Arts for interested students who sign up for the event on GriffNet.