Lake City native appears on game show during Teacher Tournament

If the long-running television game show “Jeopardy!” gave the answer Jill Gilbert, the question might be “Which Lake City native and Des Moines teacher will be appearing on television this week?”
Gilbert, who lived in Lake City through high school, graduated from high school in California and studied at Stanford and now teaches at Central Academy in Iowa’s state capital, took the online test to become a contestant a year ago. July 1, she drove to Kansas City, where she completed an interview and auditioned for the show.
“So then, after the tryout, they said, ‘Ok, you’re all in the pool of eligible applicants. We’ll call you in the next 18 months,’” Gilbert said during a phone interview Friday. “Or they won’t.”
Six months went by without a word. In January, Gilbert got that phone call. “Jeopardy!” producers offered her the chance to not only be on the show, but to compete during the Teacher Tournament, which guaranteed she would win at least $5,000 and get a $2,500 grant for her classroom.
In April, Gilbert and her mother, Mary Sporleder of Lake City, headed to California, where Sporleder was able to watch a full day of taping – five shows in a row. 
The show airs at 3:30 p.m. May 4 on WHO-TV. 
Read more in the May 4 edition.