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.