Manalapan Team Wins First Place at NJ Odyssey of the Mind State Finals

The word odyssey evokes images of tanned men aboard ancient warships navigating tempests and rocky straits on an arduous quest for home. For six Manalapan students, an international competition has led them on an odyssey of less treacherous proportions, but sprung from the same imaginative spirit that inspired Homer’s high-soaring verse.

These students took first place in their division at the New Jersey Odyssey of the Mind State Finals held Saturday, April 9 at Ewing High School. Students from across the state gathered to compete.

Their journey will take them further still as they advance to the World Finals held at the University of Maryland during Memorial Day weekend.

Odyssey of the Mind (OotM) is an international competition in which teams are awarded points for creativity in two categories: spontaneous and long-term. In the former, teams respond to a problem given on the day of the event. In the latter, they have several months to prepare a performance addressing a specific set of guidelines. Students are responsible for constructing props, set pieces, and costumes while bound to a $125 budget. Team scores are determined by a panel of judges.

The Manalapan team, consisting of Glen Weisinger, Steven Montesano, Maria Jimenez, Daniel Kronenfeld, Meredith Beirne, and Jennifer Galati, competed in Division III at the high school level against four other teams. The lower divisions consist of middle school, elementary, and kindergarten students. Over eighty teams competed, but only the first and second place winners in each division advance to the World Finals, where they will compete amongst over seven hundred teams representing 25 countries.

OotM, which was founded at Glassboro College in 1978, is sponsored by the non-profit organization Creativity Unlimited in New Jersey (CUNJ) and is administered nationwide by Creative Competitions Inc. CUNJ prides itself in encouraging students to approach problem-solving innovatively.

“You can watch the same problem answered sixty times by sixty different teams and it will always be different,” said CUNJ Association Director Harold Kurtz.

The Manalapan team operates independently of school funding to pay for admission fees and other expenses, being represented instead by community organizations. The Manalapan-Englishtown school district (K-8) decided to drop funding for the program this year due to budget cuts, though they have supported it previously.

“We’re very disappointed that the Manalapan district dropped out,” said Kurtz. “We’re hoping they will revisit their decision next year, but we’re pleased that the community groups within Manalapan felt strongly enough about the program to come on their own.”

The Freehold-Regional School District has never funded Odyssey of the Mind, and was not asked to do so this year, according to FRHSD Communications Coordinator James Quirk. 

Responding to a challenge entitled “Le Tour Guide,” the Manalapan team’s winning performance told the story of a literal-minded butler who travels the world with a trio of animated vegetables to find the perfect ingredients for a chicken soup recipe to soothe his ailing employer. The performance was executed entirely by the students without outside assistance.

The Manalapan Team retrieved their first place trophy amidst cheers of joy and excitement from friends and family in the crowded gymnasium at the awards ceremony ending the long day of competition.

“I don’t know what to say,” said mother Judy Weisinger, holding back tears. “I’m so proud. It’s indescribable.”

“Yay!” said team member Kronenfeld.

The team will spend the next month fine-tuning their performance in preparation for the World Finals.