Chatter fills the classroom as students discuss the topic at hand: rising sea levels and the melting of Antarctic ice caps. Amidst the discussion, one student half-heartedly jokes that the solution is harvesting ice from Mars. Throughout the discussion, Jayden Chen (’26) laughs along and chips in ideas as the group prepares for their next Future Problem Solvers (FPS) competition.

Although he joined on a whim in fifth grade, Jayden continued to take part in FPS seven years later. During his time on the team, they tackled real-world issues by imagining future scenarios and developing creative, researched solutions. These situations included artificial intelligence destabilizing employment, nanotechnology reshaping society and rising sea levels.

“It’s mostly about teamwork,” Jayden said. “What I like about the teamwork aspect is also just being able to work with problems that are relevant with other people. FPS has been helpful in allowing me to talk with different people, especially across different age groups.”

Over the course of high school, FPS also became one of the constants in Jayden’s life, a place where the same faces show up year after year. Working together on scenarios and traveling for competitions, Jayden deepened the connections between himself and his friends.

“I’ve had a lot of valuable experiences through FPS, experiences with dealing with different kinds of problems, collaborating in a team, presentations,” Jayden said. “Over the years, we’ve been able to strengthen our bond to one another.”

Andrew Tran (’26), Jayden’s longtime friend and FPS teammate, met Jayden in fifth grade when they first began participating in FPS. Over the past few years, their relationship has grown closer both through collaboration on their team and spending more time together in high school.

“Jayden acts like the glue of the team: He brings us all together,” Andrew said. “One of his strongest qualities is dedication. For FPS, he’ll put in the time and effort to make things happen.”

When he’s not working on FPS scenarios, Jayden also enjoys playing and designing video games. He started designing games after years of playing Minecraft and other titles with his friends.

“On the creation side of things, it expands the material that I see and gives me new ideas,” Jayden said. “I’ve always had these ideas that I wanted to add to whatever games I played. If I’m playing a game, and I think, ‘Oh, this isn’t that great,’ I also wonder, ‘What could I do better in this case?’”

For Jayden, game development has always been closely tied to the memories he has made with his friends, allowing him to unwind from the pressure of high school. Even small moments have become the ones he remembers most.

“One time, my friends and I were trying to set up a modded Minecraft server that didn’t work very well,” Jayden said. “Still, it was fun to be talking to each other and just hanging out over call, even with the technical difficulties.”

Computer Science teacher Anu Datar, who taught Jayden in Advanced Topics in Computer Science: Compilers and Interpreters last semester, noticed Jayden’s enthusiasm for programming projects. Though quieter than some of his classmates, Jayden still brought a sincere willingness to participate in class activities.

“When called upon, he could do a wonderful job of expressing and showcasing his work,” Datar said. “I did see a strong passion for computer science, for game development and the programming aspect of it in Jaden.”

Close friend James Lin (’26) has hung out with Jayden since ninth grade, often spending time playing video games with each other during lunches.

“My first impression of him was that he was calm and collected,” James said. “I noticed he’s very passionate about things outside of school and invests a lot of time into video games or coding them.”

Over the years, Jayden built smaller recreations of Geometry Dash and Space Invaders, and he is now crafting a more ambitious card game using Java and C. Between the debugging and the frustration of trying to bring an idea from his mind into code, game design has taught him patience.

“It can be a time consuming process and difficult at times to put out exactly what I have in my mind into code,” Jayden said. “[Coding] has made me gain a lot of perspective on how a good game is made and what I personally want to see in my own projects.”

In the end, Jayden sees a surprising thread tying FPS and game design together. Whether he’s brainstorming a fix for AI misinformation or coding a new card mechanic, both spaces give him room to build something from scratch.

“For FPS, you are creating your problem and creating your solutions to the problem,” Jayden said. “In a way, it is similar to being able to express my ideas into whatever form I want, whether in game design or otherwise.”