Students recount world championship experience

Published 1:51 pm Thursday, June 2, 2016

THOMASVILLE, Ga. — Thespians, Eagle Scouts, athletes, musicians and a spider joined forces in Ames, Iowa, to capture world-champion status in a mind game based on problem-solving, creativity and a Greek fable.

The Scholars Academy Odyssey of the Mind (OM) team took first place in world finals at Iowa State University in a division of 47 teams.

Thomasville’s group competed with teams from Singapore, Poland and several U.S. states in Aesop Gone Viral. A total of 827 teams competed in all problems and divisions in Ames.

OM is an international educational program that provides creative problem-solving opportunities for students from kindergarten through college. Team members apply creativity to solve problems, ranging from building mechanical devices to presenting interpretation of literary classics.

The area the Scholars Academy team competed in created and presented an original performance about a fable gone viral. The problem included a list of fables attributed to Aesop. Teams selected a fable and portrayed it and its moral as going viral — being shared throughout the community and beyond.

The performance, set in a past era, included a narrator character, an artistic representation of the fable’s moral and a character that made a wrong conclusion about the moral and is corrected.

“It’s a creative-thinking competition,” said Class of 2016 valedictorian Jacob Rieber, a Scholars Academy team member, puppeteer and voice for a huge spider that dominated the local team’s interpretation of one of Aesop’s fables.

“The spider kind of carried the skit,” said Sharon Autry, Class of 2016 salutatorian.

The giant arachnid — made of socks — hovered over and watched the skit unfold to the audience.

Other puppets in the skit included heads of nine sea monsters.

Autry said it was interesting to observe how others solved the same problems in various skits.

The team also won the Ranatra Fusca Award for exceptional creativity and risk-taking. Scholars Academy was one of five teams among 827 to win the award.

“And it does not have to be given,” team member Shivanee Patel interjected.

“They’re the perfect example of a team,” said Sharon Cernogorsky, Scholars Academy OM coach.

Said Rieber, “Everyone on the team is best friends, and it (OM) gives us an excuse to hang out.” OM has brought the seven friends even closer together.

Winning in the world championship event is a lofty status to reach, but the team is not through. They have considerably simpler plans to carry out before the fall.

With the exception of two team members who are rising seniors, other team members are headed for institutions of higher learning.

However, before they depart, team members plan to be photographed wearing East Indian clothing, travel to St. George Island, Florida, and Savannah, go out to dinner dressed in attire from another era, eat “good” pizza and take in certain movies and videos.

Cernogorsky promised the team that if they won at the world level, she would allow team members to dye her hair — any color they choose.

Lavender appears to be the color of choice.

Cernorgorsky plans to live up to her promise. She might even allow the dye job before she takes the team to Tallahassee, Florida, to eat “good” pizza.

Senior reporter Patti Dozier an be reached at (229) 226-2400, ext. 1820.