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![“When I came into high school, I was ready to be a follower. But DECA was a game changer for me. It helped me overcome my fear of public speaking, and it's played such a major role in who I've become today. To be able to successfully lead a chapter of 150 students, an officer team and be one of the upperclassmen I once really admired is something I'm [really] proud of,” Anvitha Tummala ('21) said.](https://harkeraquila.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/Screen-Shot-2021-07-25-at-9.50.05-AM-900x594.png)
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![“[Volleyball has] taught me how to fall correctly, and another thing it taught is that you don’t have to be the best at something to be good at it. If you just hit the ball in a smart way, then it still scores points and you’re good at it. You could be a background player and still make a much bigger impact on the team than you would think,” Anya Gert (’20) said.](https://harkeraquila.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/AnnaGert_JinTuan_HoHPhotoEdited-600x900.jpeg)
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Sophomore Future Problem Solvers place second at international conference
Provided by Tiffany Wong
The FPS team smiles on stage with their second place trophy. The four students that competed placed second out of 78 teams at the international conference.
August 26, 2016
Four sophomores placed second in the middle division at the Future Problem Solvers (FPS) international conference at Michigan State University in Lansing, Michigan, from June 1 to June 5.
Sophomores Sara Min, Kelly Shen, Taylor Lam and Tiffany Wong were the original team members, but because Taylor could not attend the international conference, Elaine Zhai (8) took her place in the team event.
The team placed second out of 78 groups in the middle division with their packet for the conference’s topic, “energy of the future.”
“The problems we were dealing with and the solution we were writing were aimed towards finding sources of renewable energy,” Tiffany said. “The energy of the future topic revolved around this island and this type of trees, e-daisies, and they were having some problem with generating power for the island because there was such a large population, and there were environmentalists trying to move the trees.”
An event consists of participants brainstorming potential problems and solutions dealing with the future scene, a story set in the future consisting of a main problem.
“We had to read the future scene and identify 16 challenges that would be threats for the people on the island,” Tiffany said. “We had to pick a main challenge and write 16 solutions to that challenge and then pick one solution and write an action plan, an essay, detailing how that solution solves your challenges and benefits the people in the future scene.”
To qualify for the international conference, teams had to place at least first or second in their respective age division at the regional level. The upper school team placed second in their state competition.
This piece was originally published in the pages of the Winged Post on Aug 26, 2016.
