The Homestead School recently expanded to include a junior and senior high school program.  As a Montessori school that centers project-based learning in environmental stewardship and humanitarian justice, assignments often include writing about their learning experiences. Young journalist and eighth-grade student Emmett Schwalb wrote about his team’s participation in the Regional Future City Competition, held recently in Albany, NY. 

ELDRED, NY — For months, the Future City team at the Homestead School’s Collaborative College High School (CCHS) has been tirelessly working to design the best city of the future. 

The Future City competition is a national middle- and high-school competition in which students are tasked with creating a “Future City” while solving the problem or theme given to them. This year, the problem students worked on was food waste. Each team needed to create a large-scale model of a city, write a 1,500-word essay about the city, and create a presentation they would give live in front of multiple judges at one of the many regional competitions. 

This year, the CCHS team created the city of Montoya, a partly underground city that fully eliminated food waste. 

In early September, the team met for the first time, starting with background research such as watching documentaries and taking a field trip to Kennedy Fabrications, the New York City architecture-model-making company. 

Then, the students began planning out their city. They decided to make their city mainly underground, located in Kansas, and after a heated debate, the students landed on the name Montoya. “We started with mapping out a rough draft of how our model may go,” said Clare Porter, a city planner. Guided by Abi Johnson and Amee Templin, students then branched out into teams, one further planning out the city while working on the model, and another team writing the lengthy essay. 

The city planners decided on two underground levels, Sub-1 and Sub-2. Sub-1 would be mainly residential, while Sub-2 would serve as the city’s industrial district, housing innovative food-waste systems like Biodigesters and the city’s pneumatic tube system. As they worked, the writing team finished its essay and sent it to the competition judges; the essay was due a month before the in-person competition, just before winter break. “I thought it was really impressive how you all [the Future City students] tackled different aspects of the competition and found ways to contribute,” said Abi Johnson, one of the adult guides in the competition. 

After the students returned from winter break, they only had two weeks to build their final model and to create a seven-minute presentation to showcase their city. After voting, students decided on three team members who would present the city to judges live at the competition. Amira Jabrane, Bryn Hogancamp and Emmett Schwalb were chosen to present. The team wrote a funny gimmick for their presentation, mimicking “Jeopardy.” They gathered materials and arranged them, creating the large model. 

Soon it was the day of the competition. The students arrived with their model at Shaker High School in Albany, a two-hour drive away. The team walked into a room filled with many other teams and their models. Here, the competition’s model judges would interview the teams and rate the models. “It was really nerve-wracking,” said Sophia Reinhardt, a member of the CCHS team.

The team was brought to a small classroom to give the presentation twice for two sets of five judges, followed by an eight-minute question-and-answer segment. If the team did well, members would then give their presentation in front of everyone on the auditorium stage as part of the top three. The Homestead team had worked tirelessly for months, and were hoping their labor would pay off. 

After lunch, all teams anxiously gathered in the auditorium, awaiting the announcement of the top three. The announcers gathered on the stage with the list in hand. “...And the top three teams are… the City of Montoya, CCHS…” 

The team had made it to the top three!

“It became apparent throughout the day that we would place highly, but it was an absolute shock and joy when we placed in the top three!” said Johnson.  

Now the scary part began. The students would have to present in front of all the competitors in the auditorium. The three presenters made their way to the stage, where their model was waiting. They then gave their presentation, which was once again followed by a question-and-answer session. The rest of the team watched anxiously. We had to “hold our breaths as they [the judges]  judged our presentation in front of 200 people,” a member said. After their time on stage, the team got to sit back, relax and watch the other two presentations. 

Now, it was time to see what place the team got. First, the honorary awards were handed out. The team received an award for the Best Considerations for Accessibility. And then, finally, the team was awarded third place, as well as an award for the best question-and-answer segment and $700 for the CCHS STEM program. 

Looking back on the competition, Amira Jabrane said about the final round of judging: “I decided I needed to do well or not do it at all, but I got up there and tried my best, and we got third!” 

In the end, the team left satisfied, already thinking about next year. 

For more information about Homestead’s primary program in Glen Spey or the secondary program in Hurleyville, visit www.homesteadschool.com.