The recent chess tournament hosted by XFYD was a great success, bringing together dedicated players and supporters in an organized, focused environment. The tournament offered competitive sections for players in grades K-4 and 5-8, with a particularly strong showing across all categories.

In the K-4 section, Akarsh Maheshwari emerged as the 1st-place winner, followed by Joshua Pong in 2nd place and Alex Lu in 3rd. These young players demonstrated impressive skill and focus, reflecting the time and dedication they have devoted to mastering the game. The 5-8 section also saw excellent performances, with Aditi Ganesh taking 1st place, Princeton Fang in 2nd, and Vamsi Ravula in 3rd, each bringing a high level of strategic play to their matches.

The event maintained a welcoming and supportive atmosphere, where players could refuel with snacks like chips and juice throughout the day. This ensured that players remained energized and focused during their matches, creating a positive and enjoyable experience for all participants. Families and friends who came to support the players added to the community spirit of the event, rounding out a well-executed tournament that aligns with XFYD’s commitment to fostering youth engagement in chess.

XFYD is pleased to announce the conclusion of our first STEM Tournament!

On August 16th, over 20 ambitious competitors spent the afternoon competing in several rounds of events that tested their skills in Engineering, General Science Knowledge, Physics, and Scientific Thinking over four competitive rounds that pushed participants to their limits!

Students Constructed Towers from Spaghetti and Marshmallows, competing to build the strongest, sturdiest, and tallest tower in an amount of limited time. Ultimately, students tested their application of geometry in engineering to construct a tower that was both tall and resilient to external forces. Building the tallest tower came down to a battle of ingenuity, scientific design, meticulous precision, and extreme skill. Ultimately, the tallest tower was decided by a hair.

Participants Tackled a difficult written STEM Test, testing general science knowledge at a middle-school level in Physics, Biology, Chemistry, Ecology, and more. The test was written and conducted by accomplished Science Olympiad team members and XFYD STEM Teachers, so the test pushed competitors to the limits of their scientific knowledge. Ultimately, students impressed all our XFYD Test Graders with the amount of scientific knowledge they knew and were able to bring to this competition.

Participants designed, tested, and raced a balloon-powered car. This event tested students’ creativity and resourcefulness, forcing them to make use of their limited and varied resources, such as bottle caps, playing cards, and sticks, to design a working car powered by a difference in air pressure. Students had to, through trial and error, optimize their car for distance and speed and troubleshoot errors in their car’s design, all while taking care to put their limited materials to good use.

In the last event, competitors estimated volumes and scientific measurements in three rounds of Metric Olympics. This event gave students a numeric intuition for mass, volume, and distance, all essential scientific measurements. Students had to rely on their spatial reasoning to extrapolate given measurements and estimate scientific measurements. Our test proctors were all extremely impressed by the competence of the competitors’ data reasoning and analysis!

During the break times between rounds, all competitors and parents were able to enjoy a generous amount of snacks and refreshments!

Ultimately, the competition came down to the wire. All students gave their best and came away from the tournament having gained tremendous STEM skills in hands-on activities and events, preparing students with the experience, intuition, and hands-on competence necessary to succeed in science-related fields in High School and beyond.

We must congratulate David Kang (3rd Place), Akarsh Maheshwari (2nd Place), and Kallyn Bao (1st Place) for their sportsmanship, skill, and dedication to scientific learning as the winners of our first XFYD STEM Tournament!

This tournament marks a fantastic start to XFYD’s STEM Division’s Fall Program. Since the tournament, XFYD has followed up with a Chemistry Class and a Physics Class, with a Biology, Zoology, and Engineering class soon to come. Both classes were taught by experienced Whitney High School Lab Assistants and Science Olympiad competitors, who were able to fully impart their experiences and knowledge to their students. Both classes heavily focus on hands-on lab activities and demonstrates, giving students direct experience with the wonderful world of Science!

With more teachers and a new and enhanced curriculum, XFYD is excited to to open registration to students of all skill and age levels for Chess. 

Our new curriculum will take intermediate and advanced students through the Ruy Lopez, the Italian Game, French Defense, Sicilian Dragon, and many more advanced tactics to help students defeat opponents at a higher skill level. 

Our beginner curriculum, through its education of piece movements, rules, and tactics and strategy, will establish a solid foundation in chess and give students room to develop their skills, even for those who have no prior chess experience. 

The class will be led by Benjamin Tang and Darsh Maheshwari. 

Cost: Free

When: 7:30-8:30 PM, Mondays for 6 weeks, 2/26, 3/4, 3/11, 3/18, 3/25, 4/1

Where: Online

Signups are available at the following link of QR Code: 

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1IaSYvpx4viUhPgtEV-Ni0BJDreONgXwKg-Yyfulh9Ik/viewform?edit_requested=true

Bringing together the community, we have gathered hundreds of plastic bottles, glass bottles, and cans. Environmentally conscious, we will recycle this plastic at a local recycling center.

California recently passed a law requiring all supermarkets, such as Ralphs supermarkets, to construct a plastic bottle recycling center within a 2-mile radius. We were shocked to discover that, as of now, residents in our local area and not even Ralphs employees were aware of this development and the ease by which they can contribute to the climate solution.

Our climate advocacy aims to make people cognizant of their carbon footprint and the ease of achieving a more sustainable lifestyle. We hope to spread awareness of the easy and efficient plastic bottling recycling centers near the very location they’re shopping at, and we hope people will take small steps to drastically reduce their carbon emissions.

We are eager to also announce the launch of our exciting Debate Classes via our Fullerton Chapter! Debate Classes offer a unique opportunity to develop Critical Thinking by honing your ability to analyze information critically and form well-reasoned arguments, enhance communication skills to improve your public speaking, persuasion, and articulation abilities, expand your knowledge by diving into diverse topics, and broaden your understanding of various issues, as well as boost your confidence through overcoming the fear of speaking in public and build confidence in expressing your ideas. These classes are currently taught by Miya Zhu and Milin Zhu, Fullerton Chapter’s student board members. Below is a graphic containing more information on the debate classes being held.

This chapter was founded by Austin Huang, who had previously taught Chess with XFYD. We congratulate him and the rest of the Fullerton student board on officially becoming a chapter of XFYD. Their student board plans to hold various classes to aid students’ different interests and hobbies. Of which include art, music, and chess classes. Each class provides students with different learning opportunities. The implementation of sports practices and tutoring is also up for discussion in this new chapter!

If you are from the Fullerton area or have family and friends there, please tell them to check out our new chapter. Thank you for all of your continuous support!