Not one, but two teams from the same Pinellas County middle school are heading to the Odyssey of the Minds world finals next month.
The teams are made up of 7th and 8th graders who attend Dunedin Highland Middle School.
Odyssey is an international educational program that gives students a chance to solve both long term and spontaneous problems.
"You have to think on command, you have to be smart, especially in the spontaneous, and I think that will help me later in life no matter what my occupation is," said 8th grader Emily Handsel. Handsel has a 4.0 GPA and wants to be a lawyer someday.
Team members said it’s both fun and hard work.
"We spent about four to five hours a week, and then more heading up to competitions," said 7th grader Brendan Kilgerman.
It’s exciting for Brendan Kilgerman to make it to finals; this is his first year with the program. In fact, the program has only been at the school for two years, started up by teacher and coach Calla Alford.
Alford said her reward has been seeing the students’ confidence increase over time.
"Now they're so confident in their abilities, and even when they fail, they don't take it as failure anymore, they take it as an opportunity to learn from a challenge," said Alford.
Kilgerman said his favorite aspects of the program are the history research and teamwork.
"I think Odyssey of the Mind is unique because it gives kids a chance to put their ideas out there in the world," said Kilgerman.
Alford said it's very rare for two Odyssey of the Mind teams from Pinellas County to head to the finals, let alone from the same school.
The tough part is making sure they have enough funding for the trip, and they’ve been collecting donations through the school.
“Teams usually start in kindergarten and have years to save enough money for a trip to the finals,” Alford said.
The teams are excited and hope to bring home a big win. The finals are in East Lansing, Michigan, May 20-23.