Two Haileybury students are ready to take on the world.
Anay Ashwin, 11, and Grace van Haaster, 14, both from Keysborough, are getting ready to tackle the threat of antibiotic resistance.
The students will represent Australia at an international competition that brings together some of the brightest and most creative young minds in the world to develop solutions to real world issues.
The Future Problem Solving Program International helps thousands of students to develop critical and creative thinking, problem solving and decision making skills. This year, more than 250,000 students from around 14 countries have participated in the program.
Around 2500 students will take part in the competition from Wednesday, 8 June to Sunday, 12 June.
“Future Problem Solving teaches students how to think — not what to think,” Ms Kirsten Owens, Head of LEAP Programs at Haileybury’s Newlands campus said.
“Students learn problem solving strategies, effective communication and how to collaborate and they develop ethical leadership skills. We are very proud to have two National Champions from Haileybury representing Australia this year.”
Anay is Australian Junior Global Issues Problem Solving Champion in the individual category. He is travelling to the University of Massachusetts Amherst to compete. The global issues problem solving component of the competition sees students research a topic and then use a six-step process to solve that problem and to create a detailed action plan.
“I was hooked by the idea of thinking outside the box to explore global issues of today and to then come up with ideas that could be used to help solve real world problems,” Anay, currently in year seven, said..
“This program has certainly increased my awareness of current global issues and how I could use my critical and creative thinking skills to play a small part in helping to solve these problems. We have to adapt to an ever-changing world and the students of the 21st century are the problem solvers of tomorrow.”
Anay hopes that eventually his talent for tackling global problems will help him establish a career as a flight surgeon with the Australian Space Agency.
“I want to combine my passion for space exploration and medicine.”
Grace is the Australian Middle Division Champion in Scenario Writing and will compete from Melbourne. The Scenario Writing sharpens creative writing skills by encouraging competitors to write about future-focused topics and possible actions, events and outcomes.
She has taken part in the Future Problem Solving Program International program since year six.
“I’ve written about many thought-provoking topics in that time, including space travel, refugees and artificial intelligence,” Grace, currently in year nine, said.
“While the topics have their roots in current events, I’ve looked decades into the future to see how they may affect real life and the world then. I also like to look at how these events might have impacts that aren’t as well-known, such as impacts on mental health,” says Grace.
Grace plans to pursue a career in psychology and counselling. She also hopes to become an author.
“I have ambitions to write and publish a trilogy of books exploring and disassembling the stereotypes of dystopian fiction — thing The Hunger Games of Divergent,” she says.
“I’ve already begun writing the first book and I hope that, someday, I’ll be a published author.”
Haileybury has been involved in the Future Problem Solving Program International for more than 20 years. Anay, 11, who is in Year 7 and Grace, 14, who is in Year 9, are the latest students from Haileybury to become National Champions and to represent Australia.
