Freshman Iksha Handa took first place for her Individual GIPS Booklet at the recent Future Problem Solvers state convention in Orlando. As a result, she has been invited to International Conference to compete as an individual.

“My competition was condensed because there wasn’t as many people competing,” Handa said. “We had to do solve eight potential problems in the same two hour time slot. I was in Middle Division against 25 competitors. I’m excited to go to IC in Michigan over the summer and compete with different affiliates from different states and countries.”

In addition, senior Daphna Krause won the FPS Senior Scholarship Award and the T-shirt contest, allowing her design to be featured on the convention shirts. Also, seventh-grader MacKenzey K. took second place for her Individual Scenario and second place for her Middle Division Team Scenario Writing as well, and also has an invitation to International to compete in scenario writing.

Future Problem Solvers is a competition with a six-step booklet that has a potential future problem needing to be solved. Students can compete as either groups or individuals.

Freshman Janet Lu explained her second-place finish in the Middle Division MAGIC team competition.

“My team lost at districts, but somehow I moved on to the state level on the MAGIC team,” Lu said. “I was paired with other MAGIC’s and we had to get to know each other and work together to complete the booklet that we had to do with our old groups and we got second in the state for that.”

Other winners were: Senior team A, composed of seniors Daphna Krause, Lili Tzou, Billy Luu and Avi Patel along with junior Joanna LaTorre and sophomore Billy Macom, placed third for Senior Division Presentation of Action Plan (skits); Senior team B, composed of seniors Ellie Cooper, Melissa Huberman and Emma Kent, placed fifth for Senior Division GIPS Booklet and sophomore Calista Foo placed first in her Senior Division MAGIC team competition.