When 240 ninth grade students at Sammamish High School were assigned to think critically about global agriculture, their findings didn’t just end up on desks of their three teachers. They presented their results to members of both the Agricultural Development team and Foundation Management team at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

Working in small groups, students researched challenges in either Sub-Saharan Africa or South Asia and devised a solution in the form of a mock grant proposal where they identified the strategies and resources required to help farmers overcome these issues.

Then, within each class, the students selected the best group presentation and idea to represent their class and present their solution in the Visitor Center theater to the public at the Seattle-based foundation.

One group proposed more efficient border regulations between nations to make markets more accessible. Another focused on education and compared their project idea to a ripple, whose effects would radiate outward to expand the impact.

Each group concluded their presentation by sharing some key things they learned.

“Not every area is as fortunate as our own, but we can still work to improve the areas that are less fortunate in the world,” one report noted.

A student offered, “I learned that we have responsibility as a developed country to less developed countries.”

Another observed that “working with the Gates Foundation has shown us how difficult it is to solve global problems and gives us a greater appreciation for what they do.”