It’s all a game to them

Graduate student in chemistry Andy Hejl was one of three Techers who recently competed on television game shows. He won two rounds of Jeopardy! and placed second on the third day, ending up with $37,000. Hejl, who “grew up watching Jeopardy!,” plans to save most of his winnings and possibly pay off his car. “It was a great experience,” he says. His second day on the show was the most memorable—he earned almost $30,000 and won the “Daily Double” question, which just happened to be on chemistry.

Chemistry grad student Erin Guidry, Hejl’s colleague, competed on The Price Is Right last fall. The show, which picks audience members to guess the prices of items, selected Guidry from a group of Caltech students to bid on water skis and a karaoke machine. “The moment my name was called my brain could no longer function,” she says, calling both of her bids “horrible.” Still, she received a DVD player, a furniture gift certificate, and an autographed photo of host Bob Barker. “It was a blast,” she says.

Freshman Bing Huo also appeared on The Price is Right when he attended a taping with fellow Ruddock students. A longtime fan, he said, “It was very surreal, because it was ME who was up there . . . It was just kinda unbelievable the whole way through.” He won a slew of prizes, including golf clubs, a dining set, a year’s supply of Domino’s pizza, and two cars—a Pontiac Sunfire and Ford Focus. Already zipping around in the Focus, Huo will give most of the take to his parents. He will probably sell the Sunfire to pay taxes—“upwards of $10,000,” he estimates—on the winnings.
•