virtual campus Archives

AppWizard

May 16, 2026

All-girls Kingsbridge Heights team shines in NYC Minecraft sustainability competition

A group of six fifth-grade girls from P.S. 86 Kingsbridge Heights School won the Bronx championship in the Minecraft Education “Battle of the Boroughs,” competing against 3,395 students from 679 teams. They reached the Mayor’s Cup Final, where they presented a design for a cleaner, safer version of the Hunts Point Food Distribution Center. The team utilized Microsoft’s MakeCode for coding and emphasized teamwork and communication during their project. Key roles included Leeah Gonzalez as the speaker, Yafatou Bayo as the primary coder, and Zurisadai Quiroga-Vazquez as the presenter. The girls created a virtual version of their school with sustainable features and prioritized accessibility. Their teacher noted significant personal growth among the girls throughout the competition.

AppWizard

October 31, 2025

Marist Minecraft Server in Development

A new Minecraft server is being developed for the Marist University community, led by Noah Yurasko, the President of the Student Government Association for the Class of 2028. The server will feature four distinct worlds: an Adventure Showcase World (a replica of the Marist campus), a Creative Building World, a Survival Factions World, and a Survival Collaborative World. Yurasko invited students to participate, resulting in 200 responses, with 50 interested in technical development. The server will require students to log in with their Marist email addresses to ensure a safe environment. Faculty members from the Donnelly Data Center are supporting the project, which aims to launch by the end of the semester.