2008 Woodie Awards
An Odyssey of Creativity
Ben Penn
Issue date: 6/5/08 Section: News
Micklus took a break from signing copies of his book, The Spirit of Creativity, to talk about the growth of the program over the past three decades.
"The Odyssey of the Mind started quite small; it was just going to be a one-time thing," Micklus said, sitting in the ERC's west gym. "And now it's gotten to a point where there are not many universities big enough to handle us."
Micklus, who the children call "Dr. Sam," said the university is one of about 10 in the country that can handle the program's size requirements.
It should come as no surprise, then, that the university is already scheduled to host the World Finals again in 2011, according to Susan Warren, an associate director for Conferences and Visitor Services.
Warren, whose department coordinated all the activities around the campus for the group, said the university accommodated nearly 8,000 finals participants in campus housing and issued 17,000 tickets for Tuesday night's closing ceremonies at Comcast Center.
"Odyssey of the Mind is by far the largest program that we have ever hosted," Warren said.
Vice President for Student Affairs Linda Clement said the university hosts Odyssey of the Mind to recruit potential students and to raise finances.
"It generates a lot of revenue for the campus and the surrounding community," Clement said. "We can fill up our residence halls for this program, and then our students who are living in the residence halls get their costs defrayed."
But though the World Finals participants seemed to enjoy flocking to Cold Stone, Ratsie's, Chipotle and other walking-distance eateries, their College Park location was secondary when compared to the challenges they faced from Sunday through Tuesday.
At 8 a.m. Tuesday, several hundred children gathered outside the UMUC Conference Center and prepared to begin the Spontaneous Event, considered the most difficult and nerve-racking of all the competitions because, unlike the other five long-term problems in which teams had months to prepare their solutions, there was no time to prepare for this one.
"The Odyssey of the Mind started quite small; it was just going to be a one-time thing," Micklus said, sitting in the ERC's west gym. "And now it's gotten to a point where there are not many universities big enough to handle us."
Micklus, who the children call "Dr. Sam," said the university is one of about 10 in the country that can handle the program's size requirements.
It should come as no surprise, then, that the university is already scheduled to host the World Finals again in 2011, according to Susan Warren, an associate director for Conferences and Visitor Services.
Warren, whose department coordinated all the activities around the campus for the group, said the university accommodated nearly 8,000 finals participants in campus housing and issued 17,000 tickets for Tuesday night's closing ceremonies at Comcast Center.
"Odyssey of the Mind is by far the largest program that we have ever hosted," Warren said.
Vice President for Student Affairs Linda Clement said the university hosts Odyssey of the Mind to recruit potential students and to raise finances.
"It generates a lot of revenue for the campus and the surrounding community," Clement said. "We can fill up our residence halls for this program, and then our students who are living in the residence halls get their costs defrayed."
But though the World Finals participants seemed to enjoy flocking to Cold Stone, Ratsie's, Chipotle and other walking-distance eateries, their College Park location was secondary when compared to the challenges they faced from Sunday through Tuesday.
At 8 a.m. Tuesday, several hundred children gathered outside the UMUC Conference Center and prepared to begin the Spontaneous Event, considered the most difficult and nerve-racking of all the competitions because, unlike the other five long-term problems in which teams had months to prepare their solutions, there was no time to prepare for this one.
Submit a letter to the editor or post a comment below.
Be the first to comment on this story