David Middlemiss - "My Future Problem Solving Journey"

I was first introduced to Future Problem Solving and Community Problem Solving when I was in Year 5 at Kerikeri Primary School. At that time little did I know the influence it would have on my life.

With five others we set out to raise awareness of the need to protect New Zealand's heritage buildings in the Kerikeri Basin and I feel proud that the final solution that now is established in the basin, almost exactly mirrors the ideas we incorporated into our diorama that we created to reinforce our message to students, locals, politicians and anyone who we felt could help influence this issue.

With that project we went on to represent New Zealand at the international finals and came home proud Junior Grand Champion winners. While that was exciting and gave us the opportunity to visit Georgia in the United States, and to stay in real American college dorms and to visit Texas and Disneyland, when I look back what I really gained from this experience was amazing learning opportunities from public speaking before large audiences, ICT skills, writing skills, creative thinking, awareness of local, national and global issues and a confidence that has carried me from strength to strength.

My next Community Problem Solving experience was as part of the KERI Reading team, where I and two new teammates developed a fun and interactive reading programme for reluctant Year 7 readers. With its amazing camp, peer tutoring, competitions, newly published books of short stories and celebrity readers this programme proved a huge success and still runs at Kerikeri High School years later. Due to its success we featured on radio and TV and again won the right to travel to the United States, this time to Connecticut where we once again won the Grand Champion Award for the Middle Division.

As a senior I took on a dual role, deciding to compete at senior level and at the same time assist in coaching the Kerikeri's G.I.F.T. project. Our senior team project focused on NCEA. We wrote our own NCEA course based on our project and each gained 28 credits at an excellence level. At the International Finals, we took 1st place in the Education category. G.I.F.T., the team that I coached, had a project, which involved developing positive relationships with the school's neighbouring retirement village. This team took out a Grand Champion award at the international finals in Colorado.

It was around this time that I also discovered a new aspect of the FPS programme , scenario writing. I loved reading and writing and reveled in the chance to write futuristic science fiction short stories addressing critical global themes. I was the New Zealand national champion twice and to place 4th in the world with my final story was another amazing moment for me.

I was also invited to be a Community Problem Solving judge at the National Finals and received the National Junior Service Award.

David carrying the National Flag at the Opening Ceremony in Colorado

So what have I gained from Community Problem Solving? I firmly believe that this was the most valuable learning I did while at school. I learnt to work hard, to persevere, to overcome obstacles, which inevitably confront any effort to make a change, to be a creative problem solver, to look at issues from more than one perspective, to speak and write convincingly, to negotiate and to compromise.

I honed my ICT and presentation skills and I learnt about life and life's issues and I did it addressing issues that I cared about. What could be better?

I learnt about the challenges and fun of working in a team. As a coach I learnt how to motivate others, to manage my time and to set high standards. As an evaluator at Nationals I watched other young people strive for the same things I had strived for and recognised the efforts and the learning, including the disappointments that are part of real learning.

Future Problem Solving fitted perfectly with what became another passion of mine, debating, and these key parts of my life, along with my academic, sporting, cultural, and leadership achievements at school ensured that I was never bored at school and was motivated to succeed in whatever I took on. When I left school I decided to study law and won an Auckland University Scholarship to do so before being incredibly fortunate to be awarded the Girdler's Scholarship in 2007 to study at Cambridge University in England. This has been an amazing experience that has opened up a world of opportunities for me, including the chance recently to complete an internship in a law firm in India.

Who knows where my journey that began with FPS and CmPS all those years ago will take me next.

(Note - David was selected for the Girdler Scholarship based on his work in FPS. When he was India, he applied for a job at a top law firm in London as he finishes his degree next year. When they invited him to interview for the job he told them he wouldn't be able to, so they flew two partners from the firm out to India to interview him! He got the job.)

David Middlemiss - "My Future Problem Solving Journey"

Science OlympiaNZ