The Kids from Nowhere

The Kids from Nowhere (as they called themselves) refers to ten students from the 41-pupil high school in the Siberian-Yupik (Eskimo) village of Gambell on St. Lawrence Island in the Bering Sea. The school had no computers and almost no books, most of the students had little world knowledge, and all but two spoke English as a second language. And yet, in 1984, they won two Future Problem Solvers of America competitions (national team championships in academics), even though they had to compete against teams from programs and schools for the gifted on subjects—such as genetic engineering and nuclear waste disposal—that the Gambell students had never heard of before.