PRESS RELEASE: Rogate Presentation in West Windsor, NJ

For Immediate Release Marco, an 8th grade student at Thomas Grover Middle School in West Windsor, recently presented his ROGATE project to members of West Windsor’s local chapter of BNI (the largest small business networking and referral service in the world). He pursued ROGATE with help from his school’s PRISM (Performance Revealing Individual Student Magic) Gifted program and from EIRC (Educational Information and Research Center) who run the ROGATE program.

Marco’s hypothesis was “In the near future, China will surpass the United States in economic, educational and social welfare in the near future (next 10-15 years)” With his presentation, Marco discussed the great progress China has made as a nation and as an economy and also described the shortfalls China has experienced. Marco first looked at the economies of both nations, comparing and contrasting GDPs, inflationary rates, export rates, import rates, workers in each sector, and average worker wages. He came to the conclusion China resembles America during the Industrial Revolution, but what propelled America through the time after the Industrial Revolution when this country was no longer able to cheaply produce many goods was the Progressive Movement, which established workers’ rights and unions. This advancement was mainly due to America’s democratic political orientation; consequently, it’s uncertain what will occur in a Communist state such as China. Marco’s presentation then examined the education status and social welfare of China. He found that China’s schools cater mainly to the small, rich percentage of the population and are not successful on a large scale.

The same can be seen in China’s wealth distribution system. After analyzing the source of his data, Marco found that much of the information about China was unverifiable because of a lack of sources reporting unbiased information. Due to all of this, Marco determined his hypothesis was inconclusive, as no definitive answer can be known because of the sheer lack of information. However, new generations across the world will certainly need to prepare for a much larger and more global work place then ever before. Marco said, “This ROGATE project taught me how to research fantastically and root out bad sources. I also learned and used advanced analysis techniques useful in everyday life.” He would like to thank everyone who helped him achieve this project as well as EIRC.