20

  We Have Problem Solvers — And World Champions— In Our Midst “So many people aren’t aware of it. Yet, half the people I know have received a creepy text message from a random person.” Such is the world today’s young people are living in, as portrayed starkly by Shyla Gordon, who has just finished eighth grade at North Junior High School. “I wouldn’t want anyone to go through that experience, which is why I wanted to talk about it,” says Fatuma Hassan, who has just completed her junior year at Apollo High School. Hassan and Gordon’s response to their concern earned them, in June, first place in the Community Problem Solving section at the 2023 Future Problem Solving Program International competition. They’re the best in the world. The Future Problem Solving program, started almost half a century ago, has been an extracurricular activity in St. Cloud Area School District 742 for more than 30 years. Students are trained in a skills process with which they then creatively address a pr...

  Crowder, who is ending a nine-week research internship at the Ellen Noël Art Museum, is one of four UT students who returned to the Permian Basin this summer as part of the university’s Home to Texas program. It’s the third year businesses in Odessa and nearby cities have partnered with UT to bring students back to the blue-collar region known for high school football and oil fields. [Long-awaited $18 billion property tax-cut deal heads to Gov. Greg Abbott] Smaller industrial cities and rural towns in Texas and across the nation have long struggled to attract talent, much less retain bright-eyed students. To combat the phenomena of “brain drain,” organizations from rural chambers of commerce to school districts and universities have worked to establish programs that encourage young people to keep their talents in their backyards. UT-Austin piloted an earlier version of the program in 2019, aimed at diversifying internship opportunities for undergraduate students. The program — wh...