13-year-old Artists | The Boyang Twins

They were featured on national and international television and newspapers. They won national awards in adult competitions, exhibitions and inspire their peers with their artwork to achieve greatness at a young age. These 13-year-old twins, Max and Louis, from Okemos, Michigan are making their mark in their school, community, and are planning to branch out to the state.

Dup-Dup app takes off

A new social media application startup in Okemos, Michigan is beginning to gain traction and popularity among teens and millennials. Only about 40 days since its official launch, this company has garnered over 250 registered users. Dup-Dup is a simple way to ask and answer questions, help others, be someone’s hero, and share with the entire world who your hero is and how he or she has impacted you.This application enables users to follow their friends, family, and like-minded heroes, while enjoying the interest based curated feed fueled by A.I.  and CEO, Saquib Khan. “Our goal is to create something meaningful, to help each other, and have fun doing it,” said Saquib Khan (Buddy), CEO of Dup-Dup. Khan had the vision of Dup-Dup mid summer 2018.

Okemos School District plans to expand

The Okemos School District has been taking significant steps to not only improve the quality of learning throughout their schools, but to also improve the overall K-12 experience for students, staff and families. With the board tackling some of their said-to-be most critical issues, they hope to renew and enhance their school district’s reputation. One of the first priorities the board touched on was to develop programs beyond the core that make Okemos more unique and competitive. Throughout the past decade, Okemos has been struggling to become more innovative and creative with the K-12 experience it offers to the public. “We need to explore and implement K-12 innovative instructional tools and programming such as 1:1 classrooms, flipping classrooms, and an increase in online-testing,” said John Hood.

Okemos places in Great Lakes Science Bowl

It’s been nearly 13 years since Okemos High School’s National Ocean Science Bowl team finished near the top of the Great Lakes National Science Bowl. The Okemos team has been celebrating all week their second place title. The NOSB is a regional academic competition held in Lansing, Michigan, where teams of high school students from all over compete for the regional title. Dave Chapman,  a science teacher at Okemos High School, has coached the group for over 15 years. “Mr. Chapman has put his life into this school and team,” said Adam Lacasse, an NOSB team member.