Published on February 23, 2023
WASHINGTON DC February 22, 2023 – Odesa – engineered by students from Warwick Middle School, Lititz, Pennsylvania– has won the Grand Prize at the 31st year of the prestigious international DiscoverE 2023 Future City® Competition.
Since last fall, middle school students in 38 US regions as well as teams from all over the world have imagined, designed, and built cities for DiscoverE’s 2022-2023 Future City® Competition. This year’s theme, Climate Change, challenged students to choose a climate change impact and design one innovative and futuristic climate change adaptation and one mitigation strategy to keep their residents healthy and safe.
Warwick Middle School from the Pennsylvania Central region takes home the Grand Prize of a trip to U.S. Space Camp and $7,500 for its school’s STEM program (provided by Finals sponsor Bentley Systems, Inc.).
Working as a team with an educator and STEM mentor, students present their vision of the future through a 1,500-word city essay; a scale model of their city (built with recycled materials); a project plan to help keep their project on track; a presentation and Q&A session with a panel of judges. Keeping the engineering design process and project management front and center, students are asked to address an authentic, real-world question: How can we make the world a better place?
In addition to winning the competition, our team was also awarded the following Special Awards:
The following students made up this year's team:
7th Graders: Stephen Ashton, Leah Brownsberger, Maya Buchanan, Kensi Courchesne, Charlie Cox, Liam Daecher, Carter Geesaman, Oliver Maljovec, Camryn McCormick, Reilly Naymik, Lily Rivera, Reese Shelley, Capri Shoemaker, Carly Spade, Kayla Stuckey, Aliyah Tyson, Norah Walton, Ben Witmer, Izzy Wolfe, and Daniel Wood.
8th Graders: Reid Anderson, Ian Boltz, Henry B. Browne, Ben Carlson, Sam Esterbrook, Kayla Gockley, Auguste Johnson, Nula Mellett, Soren Miller, Aaron Morgan, Jack Musser, Cody Rodgers, Tristan Smith, Rivers Smoker, Axel Stauffer, Travis Stuckey, Jack Talbot, Leah Turnbull, and Ronan Zee.
The Future City Advisor is Mr. Michael Smith and the volunteer mentor is Connor Henry, a senior at Warwick High School.
Future City has ongoing opportunities for engineering and technical professionals to volunteer in several different roles, including team mentors, competition judges, and regional coordinators. For more information about Future City and volunteer opportunities, visit www.futurecity.org.