Okinawa schools recognized in national AI challenge

April 29, 2026

Summary

Two Okinawa student teams were recognized among Defense Department school winners in the first Presidential AI Challenge.

Why this matters

The story shows how students in Defense Department schools used artificial intelligence for mental health support and cross-cultural communication. It also highlights the federal government’s new push for AI literacy in K-12 education.

Student teams from two Okinawa schools were among Department of Defense Education Activity winners in the inaugural Presidential AI Challenge, according to an April 13 agency news release.

Bob Hope Elementary School on Kadena Air Base and Zukeran Elementary School on Camp Foster were recognized alongside teams from Daegu Elementary School in South Korea, Brussels Unit School in Belgium, Sevilla Elementary Middle School in Spain, Sigonella Middle High School in Italy, and Spangdahlem Middle School and Stuttgart High School in Germany. A team from Stowers Elementary School in Georgia was named a Georgia state winner.

The competition was created by an April 2025 executive order establishing an artificial intelligence literacy strategy. It asked elementary, middle, and high school students and educators to create AI-based solutions to problems, according to AI.gov.

Teams nationwide submitted 2,500 entries, according to a Feb. 11 Facebook post by first lady Melania Trump. Fifty-three Department of Defense Education Activity teams took part, spokeswoman Miranda Ferguson said in an email Monday.

At Zukeran, Cameron Perry-Kline’s fourth grade class created Zoe Zones, an emotional wellness app based on Zones of Regulation, a color-coded system students use to show how they are feeling. The program has been used at the school for at least five years, Ferguson said.

Perry-Kline said teachers do not always have time to help students return to the “green,” or ready-to-learn, zone.

The app suggests responses for green, yellow, blue, red, and purple zones. Perry-Kline said he coded it with student input using Gemini, ChatGPT, and Claude, and that the AI adjusted suggestions over time.

At Bob Hope, five fourth graders and five fifth graders proposed a podcast, “Hello From Here, Konnichiwa From There,” to support cultural exchange. The team entered Track I, which required a proposal rather than a built AI tool, said Holly Willenbrock, a second grade teacher, video and AI club sponsor, and one of three project leaders.

Students used Adobe Podcast to record a sample episode about American holidays and used WeVideo’s AI translation to render it in Japanese.

“Here on Okinawa, we have a very difficult language barrier, so we decided to make something with AI to try to get over that and communicate easier,” fourth grader Lydia Maxey said at the school on April 22.

Fifth grader Olive Wilson said the project showed both the value and limits of the technology.

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