Hopewell Students Win Engineering Excellence Award In State LEGO Championships

HOPEWELL, N.J. — Students from Hopewell Township captured a series of awards in the First LEGO League (FLL) Championship, which showcased excellence in early age STEM learning and exploration.

After competing against 342 teams across New Jersey, the M&M Legends Team won the Core Values award, qualifying them for the state-level competition, where they won the prestigious Engineering Excellence Award. Additionally, the M&M Exlore Team won the Team Model Award at the qualifiers in this year’s Unearthed theme.

Twelve-year-old Pahul Sawhney from Lambertville, a driving force on the M&M Legends Team, shared her excitement and highlighted the team’s hard work that led to this win.

“We did extensive research, partnered with local experts, and drove community outreach efforts to address real-world challenges with innovation at the forefront," Pahul said.

As a part of the competition series, the students applied hands-on robotics experience and showcased team spirit as they partnered with various students from across New Jersey who were a part of the M&M Team.

The M&M Explore team. (Mehma and Deena Sawhney)

The Engineering Excellence Award recognizes a well-rounded team demonstrating efficiency in robot design, strong engineering, innovative thinking, and consistency in core values for solving problems with gracious professionalism. The Team Model Award celebrates creativity for the engineering design process reflecting core values.

Mehma Sawhney and Deena Sawhney from the Hopewell Valley Regional School District, along with other M&M Team participants, built impressive physical models leading to the win.

Outside of competition, the team demonstrated initiative by creating a community firewood sales station to fund their season, allowing them to operate as a self-supported team while gaining experience in collaboration and accountability. Their Innovation Project explored archaeology, with students proposing a digital platform to connect community members with experts to help responsibly document and preserve historical artifacts.

The coaches say the experience strengthened students’ leadership skills, technical abilities, and teamwork, and the team is already looking ahead to building on this momentum in future seasons. The judges remarked, “This team is not candy, but they are really sweet. Their stories from the past will continue into the future.”