We love showcasing SheHeroes all over the world, especially young SheHeroes! Four New Zealand girls have been working hard to come up with a solution to help save the honeybee. In the United States beekeepers have reported losses of 90% causing fears of crop shortages. And in New Zealand, where the girls are from, honeybee losses have reached 30%. The significant drop of has also been seen in the Middle East and Europe and has made headlines around the world. Bees are necessary to pollinate crops that feed the world's growing population.
This is where SheHeroes, Ayvran Mackie, 12, Anna-Leah Cassidy-Taylor, 12, Manaaki Jakobs, 13, and Teina Snowden, 12 come in. The girls, who hail from the Oturu School in New Zealand, researched bees, printed information brochures and planted trees to attract honeybees back. The girls even have two hives that produce honey, which they used to help raise funds to pay for a recent trip to the United States to compete in the International Future Problem Solving Finals. The girls had to raise $30,000 to make the trip and help share their solutions for saving the honeybee.
Their plan to save the honeybee helped the girls come in second place beating some of the world's top 15 teams - including Australia, Britain and Singapore. They came in second place to a school from Texas.
According to their website the Future Problem Solving Program is: An international educational program for students of all ages from P - 12 that focuses on the development of creative thinking skills. In particular, it centers on the skills of problem identification and positive solutions to those problems. Above all, it aims to give young people the skills to design and promote positive futures for the society in which they live.
These amazing SheHeroes from New Zealand aren’t the only SheHeroes making a difference via the Future Problem Solving program. Each year the Future Problem Solving Program International is award a Student Scholarship to two lucky recipients. Of all the 2011 Student Scholarship applicants, the two recipients who were chosen were two more girls. Olivia Zhu, of Saratoga California and Nicole Johnson of Johnson County, Kentucky.
SheHeroes wants to give big congratulations to our four SheHeroes in New Zealand and the two U.S. scholarship winners.
You can visit the Future Problem Solving Program International website to find out more about the program and to look for details on taking part in your own region.