ThinkQuest. As long as I live I will never forget that word. An incredibly simple word - easily created with two common English words -- that embodies the last two years of my life, and continues to influence me, even today. This simple word is the title of a program in which young Web designers from 100 countries compete yearly for nearly $2 million in scholarships, cash awards and technology products for themselves and their schools.

Teachers swear by it, participants love it, and student researchers don't even realize their peers created it. This competition has changed me in a fundamental way. Changing me from a shy yet able 'nerd' to an individual, able in technology, with the leadership skills to get results. ThinkQuest encourages collaboration, leadership, critical thinking and technological skills. Yet for me it is much more than that.

When I was first approached about ThinkQuest I was only a sophomore in high school. I was approached by two seniors asking for my technical assistance in a project that they were required to do for a senior advanced placement course in international relations. That was the year that I entered my first site in the ThinkQuest competition. Called "The Global Relations of the Many Nations," the site was a feeble attempt to show students how the nations of the world are interconnected. It failed in showing how certain organizations provide incredible amounts of assistance, and how current issues affect us all.

It was quite an amazing site from a technical standpoint. It had live chat, available in both Java and text-only flavors; it had a message forum; interactive polling that would give a graphical representation of the results; and a quiz, designed to show the user how much they had learned from the site. Honestly though, that site was more of a learning experience for me than it was a success in the educational arena. The content was lacking and the connections between material were weak. As team programmer and a lowly sophomore I had little say in the content, or lack thereof, on our site, but this simple competition had inspired me in a way I had never felt before.

As results came out I was excited by our semi-finalist ranking, but more anxious about rebuilding the site and entering it in the competition for the upcoming year. As time passed I formed a team and we once again began working on the site.

The lack of control that I had the previous year was gone; I had almost infinite control over what content the site would have and how it would be displayed. My team was also much more motivated, and by the time the deadline rolled around we had developed a quite respectable site.

Many of the interactive features of the previous year remained. They had been refined and partially rewritten, but the real improvement in the site was the content. An enormous amount of time had gone into writing for the site by my teammates, Katrina Cason and Jocelyn Woods.

The wait during the judging period was much more tense than the previous year; we had devoted an enormous amount of time and energy into the site, and wanted to win. As we anxiously awaited the result of the judging I started to receive e-mails from people I had never met before. A professor at Rutgers asking to use portions in their curriculum, and an editor of a magazine dealing with international relations, praising the site and its content.

When we were notified that we had reached the semi-finalist level we breathed a collective sigh of relief. We had great hopes for site, and at least we knew we were at the same level as the previous year. After more waiting we learned that we did not rank as finalists, but had only received honorable mention. We were disappointed, but the sadness quickly turned into a conviction to give it another shot -- I have already begun forming a team for the 2000 ThinkQuest competition.

An essential part of the ThinkQuest experience is the aspect of teamwork. Working towards a common goal, benefiting from the work of a teammate, the ThinkQuest competition is a mirror of the working world. Perhaps that's what makes the entire ThinkQuest experience such an exciting one; working towards a goal not only of excellence, but of recognition, in a field that has just recently exploded into mainstream culture.

In an age where technology seems as if it is everywhere, and more students are turning towards the Internet as a source of information as well as enjoyment, the ThinkQuest competition allows students to create for their peers. Astronomy to zoology, space, sports and stress; just a few of the sites created by you, for you, in the international ThinkQuest competition.