Trini schools make semifinal of Solve for Tomorrow

Three Trinidad and Tobago schools have been selected for the semifinal of the Solve for Tomorrow 2024 (SFT) programme.

Five Rivers Secondary School; Holy Faith Convent, Penal; and Queen's Royal College, Port of Spain, will move on to the next round of Solve for Tomorrow 2024 (SFT), the educative programme by Samsung Electronics for Central America, the Caribbean, Ecuador, and Venezuela, a media release said.

A total of 202 participants from TT registered in the initial stage of the programme. The three schools were selected after the evaluation of interesting and original proposals, the release said.

They are among ten teams preparing to enter the next stage of Solve for Tomorrow 2024 . This year marks the 11th edition of the programme, with students participating from Belize, Costa Rica, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, Panama, the Dominican Republic, TT and Venezuela.

Overall, 40 per cent of the project topics addresssed the environment, while mental health was covered by 20 per cent. Those focused on education accounted for 15 per cent; social inclusion-mental health also garnered 15 per cent; and the improvement of public or community services, five per cent.

Proposals from TT students predominantly focused on safety and inclusion topics, the release said.

Samsung's Electronics, at the start of this year’s edition, already met one of its objectives – to increase enthusiasm and the willingness to participate within the student community in the 11 countries where the call was made, the release said.

For this year's Solve for Tomorrow programme, 2,922 proposals were registered, presenting solutions to collective problems affecting the students' communities. This was a notable increase compared to last year, which had 2,304 submissions. This increase was also reflected in the number of students and teachers who participated. This year totalled 12,821, representing a 45 per cent increase compared to 8,838 last year.

More Inclusive Participation

To achieve greater coverage in the participating countries, a large team of field co-ordinators visited educational institutions and conducted introductory design thinking workshops for students and teachers, providing them with the tools to refine their proposals, which they submitted in the first stage of SFT 2024. This flagship programme by Samsung Electronics is carried out in collaboration with the renowned organisation Glasswing International, the release said.

Corporate citizenship manager at Samsung María Fernanda Hernández said in the release, “The support of our allies in each country has been crucial to the success of this programme. Year after year, we have strengthened alliances with ministries of education in each country, universities, foundations, business chambers, and multilateral organisations, through their valuable contributions that strengthen our programme.

“We have also encouraged more girls and women to participate in STEM activities –science, technology, engineering, and mathematics– in our educational programmes. In Solve for Tomorrow, we focus on ensuring that students form mixed groups to participate."

The SFT programme has recorded increased participation from female students, she said.

“It is very encouraging that in this year’s SFT, in five countries, more female students registered than male students. Notably, in TT, 55 per cent of the teams comprised female students, followed by Costa Rica, Belize, Guatemala, and Honduras, with the rest showing a balance between both genders.”

Hernández noted that another achievement was increasing participation in areas remote from capital cities to expand geographical participation: “This year, we reached coverage of approximately 20 per cent of the territory in the different countries.”