Seventh Grade Quest Students Develop Solutions to UN Sustainable Development Goals
As a part of the Quest program, seventh grade students complete an end-of-year interdisciplinary project known as the Global Challenge. Divided into groups, the students are asked to design solutions for a UN Sustainable Development Goal.
This year’s projects primarily focused on global health and well-being, hunger, the environment, gender and education equality, and refugees. Some examples of topics the students explored included: meeting the sanitary needs of women in Afghanistan, developing safer methods of boat transportation to aid refugees in the Mediterranean Basin, putting a stop to illegal fishing, identifying solutions for people with food insecurity in Chad, exploring alternative materials to prevent ocean plastics, and creating legislation to inhibit the marriage of adolescent girls.
The Challenge culminated with the opportunity for the middle schoolers to pitch their proposed solutions to an expert in the field via Zoom. Of the six experts consulted, three were MFS alumni.
- Ali Blumenstock, Program Manager at Mercy Corps
- John Donnelly, Ph.D. ’71, Former President of Global Healing, Berkeley, Calif.
- Rena Greifinger, Managing Director, Maverick Collective at Population Services International
- Michael Murza ’06, Attorney at The California Energy Commission
- Chris Setz-Kelly ’04, Associate Attorney at Gian-Grasso, Tomczak, & Hufe, P.C.
- Patty Pina Slutzky, Chief Development Officer at American Journalism Project