Year 12 Melville SHS student, Zak Alpers, has placed second in the World Final of the Future Problem Solving International Competition in the USA in the Scenario Writing category. This is the second time Zak has been a world champion, as he placed fifth in 2019. In 2019, Zak was the only non-American participant to earn a place in the Senior Division, and he was only in Term 1 of Year 10 at the time. It is a fantastic achievement to place in this international competition, let alone travel so high up the leaderboard in a short amount of time. Zak has been the Australian national champion for the last two years.
Sadly, Zak has missed travelling to the US to represent Australia twice because of COVID-19 and instead competed online through a virtual platform. The awards were announced via a Youtube Live presentation on Tuesday 15th June 2021.
His Literature teacher and Future Problem Solving Coach, Ms Tammara Yeo, said “This is a very prestigious competition which has been running for 30 years and showcases the best schools and students from across the world. To come second in the world is a huge achievement for Zak and really demonstrates what an extraordinarily gifted student he is.”
Zak lives in Beaconsfield and first came to the school as part of the Gifted and Talented Academic Program and the Aviation Specialist Program.