FORT PIERCE — Fort Pierce native Ashley Walker appears on Jeopardy! starting this week as part of the team selected to be among a cast of “15 of the country’s brightest college students” participating in the television game show’s 22nd college championship.

The series is being aired this week and next, Monday through Feb. 12.

Walker, 21 and a Dartmouth College senior, flew to Los Angeles at the beginning of January for the 10-show taping and a chance to win $100,000.

“I’m excited to meet Alex Trebek, and I’m a bit nervous to be on TV,” Walker said in December. Walker graduated from Fort Pierce’s Lincoln Park Academy in 2006. “If I win, I’ll probably use the money to go to law school, but at this point I’m just trying to go in clean and see this as a fun opportunity.”

Walker hoped to experience the theme music, witty banter, buzzers, stress and live studio audience for years.

A Jeopardy! fan since she was younger, the trivia buff took the show’s online quiz twice and even traveled once from her New Hampshire college to Boston for a live audition. Given the odds, she never thought she would hear from anyone.

Then, on Dec. 6, she received a phone call from an unfamiliar number while she was studying for exams. And just like that, Walker was planning her all-expenses paid trip to L.A.

As a member of her school’s College Bowl competitive trivia team, Walker is familiar with this kind of competition.

“Jeopardy! is about speed,” she said. “I think on most questions, a lot of people know the answer, but it’s just the speed of recall that can trip you up. If you study, it will help with recall.”

So with a little less than a month to prepare, Walker crammed. She watched as many previous shows as possible to get a feel for some the popular topics and pulled out her old SAT-prep books that provide succinct overviews of subjects like American history and the Cold War.

More than anything, though, she hoped to make it to the end of the game with all of the random tidbits she’s collected over the years.

For example, she learned the other day that Coca-Cola would be green if the manufacturers didn’t add food coloring. And a Sunday school song taught her the correct order of all of the books of Bible.

Whether or not Trebek asks what comes after the Book of Job — and whether she makes it to the $100,000 mark — Walker has been forced to keep mum about the result when she came home.

She’ll re-experience her victory or defeat along with her Dartmouth friends during a viewing party when the show airs.

About the 22nd college championship of Jeopardy!

In January, Ashley Walker of Fort Pierce and 14 other contestants from colleges throughout the country will tape 10 episodes of “Jeopardy!” in Los Angeles.

The two-week competition is scheduled to be broadcast Monday–feb. 12.

During the first week, each contestant will appear in one of the five shows. Winners from each of the shows and the next four highest money-earners will advance to the semifinals.

In the second week, the nine remaining contenders will go head-to-head in three episodes for a slot in the two-game final match.

Those knocked out in the first week will receive $5,000. Semifinalists will take home $10,000; the third-place winner $25,000; second-place $50,000; and first-place $100,000.

STUART — Aron Morlan didn’t think he’d even get into the studio audience for “The Price is Right” when he was vacationing with a few friends in California in June.

That same day, the 27-year-old Stuart resident was guessing the price of a diamond watch, spinning the giant wheel looking for that elusive $1 tile, and giving host Drew Carey a bear hug. (more…)