Utica Students Design 'Future City' for Novi Competition

A group of students from Trinity Lutheran School in Utica brought their vision for the future to life during the 2014 Future City competition held Monday at the Suburban Collection Showplace in Novi. 

Teams of 6th-8th graders from 19 Michigan public and private schools, as well as homeschoolers, spent the morning talking with judges who ranked their entries in the STEM (science, technology, engineering, math) competition. This year's theme was “Tomorrow’s Transit: Design A Way To Move People In And Around Your City.”

Sebastian Judnich, Christian Dolmage and Noah Harris, all eighth graders, presented the design on behalf of their class. They didn't finish among the top five, but all three said they learned a lot from the experience. 

Dolmage, who said he likes to build and invent things, explained how the team made a simple switch from Christmas lights. 

"It ended up being very fun," Harris said. 

For the fourth straight year, students from St. John Lutheran School in Rochester took home top honors, along with a slew of other special awards. They will move on to February's national Future City in Washington, D.C.