In 2004, I had the honor of being “appointed” the position of one of the two ValiDIctorians at Global Competition.  I was involved in DI for over nine years and was carrying that experience into my college career.  While anticipating being an appraiser for InDIana competitions, I composed a team of fellow students from various universities in order to compete in DI Extreme.

So what did I do with my high school education and my years of experience in Creative Problem Solving competition?  I enrolled in 2004 at Purdue University in West Lafayette, Indiana, to study Engineering.  I participated in the DI technical problems for  six years, and learned more than my share of information.  From crayons to industrial robotic wheels, I couldn’t imagine through the years that I was actually doing engineering.  In my Engineering 106 class, we were given problems to solve and things to build that must solve certain tasks.  Now where have I done that before?  That blew my mind.  Little could I have known that DI prepared me for the one job I had dreamed of doing ever since I could remember. 

I remember in class we had this one problem to create a vehicle that moved using the air-force of a balloon.  I couldn’t believe that my class team had gotten that problem!  We had done that exact same thing both in DI, creating vehicles that moved on the sheer force of leaf blowers. 

I’ve been doing engineering since I was nine years old and never even realized it.  Engineering is the process by which a team of individuals are given a problem, such as sending a person into space, and made to solve that problem by designing possible solutions and bringing that best possible solution to light of the employers, such as the famous Apollo missions.  Destination Imagination has prepared me beyond what I ever could have realized by teaching me how to think --or rather -- how not to think. 

I have been thinking “outside the box” for over nine years, and have become an asset to my school engineering teams as well as to my friends both at home and at school.  My experience gives me the upper hand when dealing with engineering problems, both in class and in real life.  I use the skills and bit of knowledge everyday in order to bring me closer to my ultimate goal: NASA. 

The amount of acquired knowledge that has been compiled within my mind over the nine years, thanks to the challenges of creative problem solving, has ultimately brought me to the realization that I already know how to do this.  Thanks to DI, the greatest skill that I need to accomplish my goals in my life, I already have: the ability to solve a problem creatively and effectively.  Just because I’m going to school to be an engineer, doesn’t mean that I don’t already qualify.  After all, I AM an engineer -- now I just need the papers to prove it. 

Stephanie Simerly
Freshman Engineering, Purdue University
DI Extreme DUCTS - 2005
10 Years of CPS
VOMBO Scholarship awardee - 2004
co-ValeDIctorian - 2004