Mental health, clean water and shelter for the unhoused

SA Smart Mayor’s Challenge is empowering the next generation of innovators in San Antonio.

06-05-2025

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Team LALA from Samuel Clemens High School won the top spot in the high school bracket at this year’s SA Smart Mayor’s Challenge, held May 15 at SAMSAT AREA 21, the technology showcase operated by San Antonio Museum of Science and Technology. SAMSAT leads the SA Smart Mayor's Challenge.

Naming their team after their first initials, juniors Laila Burcham, Anela Clark, Lyla Pevoto and Aubrey Willman chose to tackle the rising crisis of untreated mental health issues among San Antonio students by pitching the creation of a “Blue Room” on school campuses.

The rooms would be both an oasis of calm for students to decompress, and would be stocked with mental health care resources for ongoing care. The team said they’re in talks with their own school about creating a Blue Room on campus. “Our counselor thought it was a great idea,” said Burcham.

Team LALA was one of several winning teams from Clemens, an International Baccalaureate school in the Schertz-Cibolo-Universal City Independent School District. Thirteen teams from schools across San Antonio made it to the finals, from more than 90 teams who began the challenge back in January.

Dr. Cliff Zintgraff, a longtime STEM educator and SAMSAT's Chief Learning Officer, said this year’s 13 finalist teams presented some of the most well-researched solutions to some of the real-world challenges facing a growing San Antonio that he’s seen since he launched the effort in partnership with the mayor’s office eight years ago.

“The presentations were incredibly strong—some of the scores would have taken first place in previous years. That’s how much the competition has evolved,” he said.

While in past years, student teams were assigned a single topic to research, this year the teams could choose from a number of intractable challenges facing San Antonio, like transportation, housing, food, water, sustainability, mental health, digital inclusion and the environment, all themes drawn from San Antonio’s SA Tomorrow Plan.

Team LALA wasn’t the only finalist to focus on mental health. Another team pitched a nurturing virtual pet that promotes engagement by asking reflective questions. Other teams tackled homelessness, misinformation, trash, water scarcity, and affordable workforce training.