Dawson High School, Pearland Junior High West and Rogers Middle School will represent Texas at the 2023 Future Problem Solving Program International Conference to be held June 7-11 in Amherst, Massachusetts. At the Texas State Bowl, DHS took the top spot in Community Problem Solving in the Senior Division as well as three top spots in Global Issue Problem Solving (GIPS). PJH West’s Kara Li won the Individual GIPS competition and Rogers won the GIPS junior team division.

Pearland Junior High East, Berry Miller Junior High, Alexander Middle School and Sablatura Middle School also qualified and competed in the FPS State Bowl, taking home several awards. Jamison Middle School’s FPS team qualified to compete at the state competition, but was unable to attend.

The DHS, PJH West and Rogers students advancing to the International level of the contest will compete against more than 2,200 students from around the globe, participating in problem-solving around this year’s theme, “Currency.”

Students advancing to the international competition this year include:

Dawson High School

• Senior Grand Champions in Senior Division Community Problem Solving: Catherine Bai, Mai Nguyen, Annie Vu, Harrison Zhu, Aivy Nguyen, Chen Wang, Bowen Xie, Julia Xiao, Madhura Sriram, Grace Wei

• 2^nd Place, Middle Division Community Problem Solving: Kara Li, Richa Paliwal, Erin Ireland, Ares Zhou, Noah Dinh, Azrielle Callanta
• 1^st Place, Middle Division Individual Global Issues Problem Solving (GIPS): Kara Li
• 3^rd Place, Senior Division Team GIPS: Jack Liu, Patrick Hughes, Haydn Man*, Michael Christner*

*Callie Meng (substituting for Haydn Man at FPSIC)

*Annalise Martinez (substituting for Michael Christner FPSIC)

 Pearland Junior High West

• 4^th Place, Middle Division Team Global Issue Problem Solving: Binita Halder, Grace Wang, Grace Dai, Amadea Barsan

Rogers Middle School

• 3^rd Place, Junior Division Team GIPS Juan Cubas Devoto, Shiloh Le, Noah Matthes, Shreya Vaithianathan.

Although not advancing to the international competition, the following students also won awards at the State Bowl:

Dawson High School

• 2^nd Place, Middle Division Presentation of Action Plan: Ayush Anandkumar, Erin Ireland, Nyssa Williams, Zach Pair, Azrielle Callanta, Richa Paliwal, Kara Li.
• 1^st Place Senior Division, Presentation of Action Plan: Annalise Martinez, Callie Meng, Cindy Ren, Janna Jing, Julia Xiao, Madhura Sriram
• Semifinalists, Senior Division Team GIPS: Chen Wang, Langdon Dai, Mahesh Parmeswaran, Nathaniel Waguespack.
• Semifinalists, Senior Division Team GIPS: Annie Vu, Catherine Bai, Harrison Zhu, Mai Nguyen

 Pearland Junior High West

• 2^nd Place, Middle Alternate GIPS Team: Madelyn Dinh
• 3^rd Place, Middle Alternate GIPS Team: Joanne Joseph, Nicole Song
• Semifinalist, Middle Division, GIPS Team: Julie Nguyen, Sumith Murthy, Yichen Wang, Grace Ji, Vedant Yadav, Rexford Pan, Grae Peterson, Stephen Hong.
• 3^rd Place, Middle Division, Community Problem Solving: Binita Halder, Grace Wang, Grace Dai, Amadea Barsan, Nicole Song, Yichen Wang, Arianna Li, Sumith Murthy, Joanne Joseph, Vedant Yadav, Grae Peterson, Leah Hong, Fiona Byrd, Emerson Li, Madelyn Dinh, and Julie Nguyen.

 Alexander Middle School

• Most Futuristic Scene, Junior Alternate/MAGIC team member: Charlotte Bonner
• 1st Place, Junior Alternate GIPS Team: Kelsie Andrews
• 3^rd Place, Junior Alternate GIPS Team: Charlotte Bonner
• 1^st Place, Novice Presentation of Action Plan: Emerson Johnston, Gabrielle Alexander, Henley Haynes, Jacob Frerking, Charlotte Bonner, Kelsie Andrews

Sablatura Middle School

• 5^th place, Junior Division Individual GIPS: Bryan Chen
• 4^th Place, Junior Division Team GIPS: Iva Chiang Jinoo Kim Zoey Rui, Athena Zhou
• Semifinalists, Junior Division Team GIPS: Elizabeth Cline, Saanvi Thakre, Hannah Zhang, Helen Zhou, Olivia Lou, Rebecca Ritchey, Riya Sekharan, Erina Sylejmani.

Pearland Junior High East

• 1^st Place Middle Division, Alternate/MAGIC team GIPS Katelynn Barlow
• 2^nd Place Middle Division, Alternate/MAGIC team GIPS Kody Taylor

Future Problem Solving coaches include DHS’s Carrie Cummings, Amber McCoy, PJH West’s Lisa Shapiro, PJH East’s Elizabeth Myers, Rogers’ Lynda Ketterer, Sablatura’s Cassandra Maldonado and Alex Serrano, Alexander’s Elesha Alexander, and Jamison’s Sandra Vela. Lisa Shapiro from PJHW was named FPS coach of the year for the Texas affiliate.

The FPS State Bowl topic this year was “Robotic Workforce.” In addition to developing a solid grasp of the topic, students used their research to predict future issues and solutions related to it.

FPS stimulates critical and creative thinking, problem solving and decision-making skills while preparing students for leadership. Each year, thousands of students compete from the U.S., Australia, Hong Kong, India, Korea, Malaysia, New Zealand, Portugal, Singapore, Turkey and more, learning to work with others and designing positive futures.

(05/09/2023)