Net surfing led to a $15,000 scholarship, global friendships and a trip to Switzerland for one East High graduate.
Ben Mabey, who teamed with students in Australia and the Netherlands, created an educational Web site as part of the worldwide ThinkQuest Internet Challenge. His team's site, "Voyage of Exploration," library.thinkquest.org/C001692/english/index.php3?subject=home netted top prize in the social sciences category.
"I've just learned the power of the Internet and how it can be a useful tool," said Mabey, 18, who is finishing his first year at the University of Utah. "I didn't see how useful it was until our site was being used."
Mabey is no stranger to the Internet. For the past four years or so, he has been involved in Web design, working as a free-lancer and at Inetz Media Group.
A little over a year ago, the Sterling Scholar finalist and student government leader was searching online for college scholarships. He stumbled across ThinkQuest Inc.
ThinkQuest offers scholarships, cash and technology products to top student Web designers. Its programs aim at helping students build technological, critical thinking and collaboration skills. Since 1995, 50,000 youths from more than 100 countries have participated in the programs and created nearly 4,000 educational Web sites on topics from Shakespeare to holistic health practices.
Mabey thought he'd give the competition a shot. He punched in personal information on the site's team-finder and waited.
He'd soon find a friend from Down Under.
Eli Cowling from Ballarat, Australia, was drawn to Mabey's Web experience. The 1999 ThinkQuest finalist who competed in Los Angeles — her first jaunt abroad — was adept at researching and posting content for Web sites and needed a graphic design pro.
Hylke Dijkstra from Groningen, the Netherlands, participated in the 1998 ThinkQuest contest. He wanted to program and manage a team's Web site.
The trio formed a partnership and brainstormed ideas for a site.
"The hardest part . . . was the communication aspect: working with teammates from different continents with different time zones," Dijkstra said in an e-mail interview. "But that was also exactly what I like most: working with other people."
The team decided on a site about world explorers, something they believed would appeal to elementary schoolchildren worldwide. The group worked months and put in some all-nighters to meet an August 2000 deadline.
The site went live shortly after. It was an immediate hit. Some 150 schools worldwide use the content and quizzes as part of their curriculum. CNN named it the Web site of the day on Columbus Day.
"When the site first went live, I was surprised by the traffic and e-mail that came in," Mabey said. "It was nice to find out all the work we had done was used in classrooms."
The trio met each other for the first time last month at the ThinkQuest competition in Geneva, Switzerland.
"You work with two people who are complete strangers over the year, learning little bits and pieces about them along the way, and then finally you meet them in real life, and it's just an incredible thing!" Cowling said in an e-mail interview. "The three of us got on so well together in Geneva, and I hope we'll become lifelong friends. I'm sure we will."
Each of the three took home $15,000 scholarships and a platinum medal, the top prize, in the social sciences category. The trio also split a $3,000 prize in a Dutch contest.
Cowling and Dijkstra each plan to use the money to study one year in the United States. Mabey wants to put his toward computer engineering studies at the U.
"Anyone interested in ThinkQuest, no matter how advanced, should do it," Mabey said. "Anyone could win if they want it enough."
E-MAIL: jtcook@desnews.com