A team of four San Jacinto Intermediate students seized a great opportunity to demonstrate to the greater Houston area the way an ideal future city should look as they earned third place in the 2007 Houston Regional Future City Competition recently.

San Jacinto students Jovanny Andrade, Jesse Cooper, Erik Munoz and Jacob Shugart excelled in the competition against many other students throughout the area. Teachers who assisted the students were Maricela Rodriguez and Amanda Hullermann. Ben Gaef, a chemical engineer with Lyondell Chemical Company, provided mentorship for the group of students in the competition.

“We are extremely proud of the team and teachers,” San Jacinto principal Dianna Walker said. “The experience was wonderful for those involved.”

This competition is held for students who have an interest in learning about the field of engineering. The students’ abilities to compete were graded in four phases. The first and second phases required the team to build a future city with the use of a computer simulation game as well as to also build a scale model of the city they designed. The third and fourth phases required the team to write a short essay regarding a strategy to include fuel cell systems to power a city of the future and a verbal presentation summarizing what they have learned collaboratively.

Andrade and Cooper said this competition encouraged them to continue their studies after high school.

Rodriguez said she was impressed with the positive attitude and work ethic among the students.

“The third place award shows that we can compete with the rest of the community,” Rodriguez said.