Due to COVID-19, the Future Problem Solving team couldn’t attend State Bowl at Michigan State University.

While teams from around the state were not able to compete in-person, that didn’t stop awards from being presented virtually.

The four categories judged this year were Community Problem Solving, scenario writing, slogan, and cover design.

Each are divided into three divisions: junior, middle, senior.

All teams from Kearsley High School competed in the senior division.

Senior Jolie Timm took home first in scenario writing while sophomore Abby Hause, a student at Genesee Early College who practices with the KHS team, took second.

Senior Connor Earegood placed as a semi-finalist in scenario writing and took second in slogan.

The CmPS team, consisting of Timm, Earegood, Jenna Roush, and seventh-grader Brianna Sierra took third in their division.

The team also won the Michigan Department of the Environment, Great Lakes, and Energy Environmental Service award, one of two winners.

The award surprised Timm.

“I didn’t expect to win the award,” Timm said. “I didn’t know that Mrs. (April) Yorks nominated us until she told us that we won.”

The award recognizes students from around the state that have worked on environmental projects.

The CmPS team worked to increase recycling at Armstrong Middle School and KHS, holding pledge drives for the America Recycles pledge.

Timm believes that environmental awareness is important, especially at the high school level.

“Taking notice of the environment at the school level is important because it can help on a much larger scale.” Timm said. “Based on the amounts of plastic we collected on the recycling day, we determined that Kearsley could help keep over 2,000 pounds of recycling out of landfills each school year which could definitely help make an impact over time.”