A version of this story was published on PR Newswire on April 8, 2026. 

At the 2026 Future City Nationals Competition in Washington, D.C., junior Cameron Wei, senior Merjem Kadric, junior Pelle Verkoeijen, senior Hidde Verkoeijen, and senior Maya Kim participated and won the prestigious People’s Choice Award. They were led by LSS Science teacher Nick Accardo, lead coach, and LSS Spanish teacher Geoffrey Embrey, assistant coach. 

To earn their spot at Nationals, they landed in the top 20 of 109 schools during the first round of the competition. The People’s Choice Award is voted on by the public attending the event as well as other teams presenting, and this exemplary distinction celebrates the most innovative, impressive, and visually extraordinary city model.

Laurel Springs School’s Future City Team

Each student in the Future City team is enrolled in The Academy at Laurel Springs, available to students in grades 6-12. private online school for grades K-12. In addition to opportunities to work in competitions like Future City, Academy students also have the opportunity to participate in weekly live Workshops and in-depth research projects.

Laurel Springs School’s Future City Team Presentation

The team presented a futuristic port city named Sant’Isidoro, located on the eastern coast of Brazil. The team designed a network of pipes to help improve food delivery, and minimized waste through an innovative RC system. Their bold and creative vision of a green city that does not harm the environment stood out amongst the competitors, earning them the People’s Choice Award.

Unlike other Future City teams who have time to practice together in-person, the Laurel Springs Future City team only practiced online before the event. “Before the Future City competition, we only practiced our presentation virtually,” shared Laurel Springs junior Maya Kim. “We watched the presentation come together by presenting and practicing in person the day before. It was so cool to see it all come together.”

Laurel Springs Head of School Alyssa Tormala also shared more about her thoughts on the team’s ability to present after spending months practicing virtually. “It takes extra effort, planning, and communication to run a team this way, and I am so proud of the students, faculty, and staff for joyfully leaning into this opportunity!”

The 2026 Future City Competition theme was Farm to Table, emphasizing the importance of keeping citizens healthy while reducing food waste. The Laurel Springs Future City team created a vision of a city they believe could be plausible in 100 years, finding examples of current solutions, iterating on them, and creating ideas to achieve the goal of ending food waste.

We are so proud of the incredible work of the Future City team! Congratulations to each team member for their dedication and perseverance throughout the competition!

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