Each year a number of our schools participate in the Future City Competitions in their region. These competitions allow our students to engage with complex engineering and city planning concepts, bringing their vision for a city to life. This year’s Future City theme, Farm to Table, challenged students to design cities that eliminate food waste while keeping citizens healthy and safe. Students from Stratford School, Laurel Springs School, and Chesterbrook Academy participated in competitions in California, North Carolina, and Washington, DC–earning more than 30 awards across many categories.

Laurel Springs School’s Future City team was awarded the prestigious People’s Choice Award at the Washington, DC competition. Voted on by the public, this special honor celebrates the most impressive, innovative, and visually stunning city model, and our LSS innovators delivered in a big way. Their bold ideas showed creativity and vision that truly stood out on the national stage.

Across seven Stratford School middle school campuses, twenty-six student teams took on the challenge and demonstrated exceptional innovation, collaboration, and real-world problem solving skills.

Top Overall Awards (NorCal Regional):

2nd Place: Team Kasai Nova – Stratford Preparatory Blackford
3rd Place: Team Nytheris – Stratford Palo Alto
4th Place: Team Acropolis – Stratford San Jose
5th Place: Team Avanzs – Stratford Pleasanton
People’s Choice Award: Team Terranova – Stratford San Jose

Stratford students also earned recognition across specialty categories including sustainability, renewable energy, equity-driven design, water management, fire protection engineering, systems integration, and city planning excellence.

Stratford Altadena 7th graders also earned 3rd Place at the 2025 – 26 Future City SoCal Regional Competition with their city: City of Rivers.

Middle school students from Chesterbrook Academy in Cary, NC also earned a top-20 statewide finish at the 2026 NC Future City competition, along with the Future-Ready Resilience Award for their city Harvest Haven.

These accomplishments reflect our students’ dedication, creativity, and commitment to designing thoughtful solutions for the cities of tomorrow, and we also recognize the educators who guided and supported these teams throughout the process.