Frequently Asked Questions - scholarships

All application materials become the property of DISC and will not be returned.  DISC reserves the right to use submitted materials for educational and publicity purposes

Applicants should be either graduating from high school or currently in a post secondary educational program. They must have participated in at least one of the programs Destination ImagiNation offers as a team member or as a volunteer to be eligible to apply for a DISC Scholarship. Participants from our international affiliates are welcomed and encouraged to apply, but should realize we do require the materials to be presented in English as we do not have translators available. Our international applicants should also be aware that the awards will are paid to their learning institution in US Dollars.

Remember that as long as you remain active -or become active- in Destination Imagination, and are continuing your education at the post secondary levels, you are encouraged to apply for a DISC scholarship. Read our applications, online or in document form, and you should see the importance we assign to continued participation in whatever form it may take.

If you are awarded a DISC Scholarship, a form will be emailed to you that must be filled out by your college or educational institution. We ONLY pay the award to such institutions; payment will NOT be paid to an individual awardee. When we receive the DISC Scholarship form verifying your enrollment, we notify DI HQ and payment will be made through them in the month of September.

YES!

A presentation is a way of conveying information to an audience through visual means. In this case, the "visual means" must be something that can be viewed via a computer.

In order for the presentation to have "value to some aspect of the Destination ImagiNation program", it should convey information important to someone involved in the program. The challenge gave 3 examples of possible audiences for this information (team managers, appraisers, and participants), but you are certainly not limited to those.

So, decide what about creative problem solving in general - or Destination ImagiNation® in particular- is important for someone to know & go from there!

We do not publish examples of past solutions from previous scholarship years. Our goal is to let your imagination take you to new places. Selected entries of value to the DI Community may be found on our Resources page.

You really need to decide this for yourself!

If you are submitting an essay:

The essay is meant to be open-ended although it needs to cover the following topic:

"Applicant will create a ‘creative essay' highlighting one asset or attribute about himself that was gained or enhanced through participation in Destination ImagiNation® programs."

Remember that we need an electronically viewable copy of your "essay".

If you are submitting a presentation:

"Applicant will provide a Presentation that can be viewed electronically that has value to some aspect of Destination ImagiNation Program enhancement."

Some examples include but are not limited to Presentations for Team Manager training, Appraiser training and DI Program Introduction. Presentations should be free of intellectual property infringements and freely distributable for use by participants in Destination ImagiNation®. The choice of tools is the choice of the Applicant and can include tools and systems developed by the Applicant.  Please advise the Committee of any tools or parts of the Presentation that were Applicant developed. Presentation should be under 10,000KB."

If you are submitting an Internet entry:

The content must relate to the DISC Mission Statement: "The mission of DISC is to support the goals of Destination ImagiNation® and its participants through scholarships and community building activities. " (Please see notes about hosting provisions on our home page.)

Applicants must submit content in a form distributable via the Internet (i.e. free of intellectual property infringements and viewable with a standard browser).

The Internet Challenge is probably the most open-ended -- but the idea is that the web is going to provide some aspect of Destination ImagiNation Program enhancement; it should convey information important to someone involved in the program.

The all-volunteer Reviewing Committee is composed of members from all across the USA. We cannot meet "face to face" so we do all our work via the internet. Therefore we need a format that all can review in their own homes. Providing us with an electronic version of your entry helps us to do that.

We are anticipating a large number of applicants and we wish to give each application a fair appraisal. Our scholarship committee is composed of 100% volunteers, and we need to respect their time commitment by giving them a reasonable amount to review.

Click here for detailed instructions.

Under ideal conditions (a good phone line without noise), a 28.8 modem will take 16 to 18 seconds to download that amount of information. Many folks are still working under less than ideal dial-up conditions and we would want your solution to be available to the entire DI community!

We do not publish a standard individual award amount, which provides us with the flexibility to award larger amounts for exceptional entries and reduced amounts for honorable mentions. The past few years' award amounts and recipients are available on this website. Please take the time to visit that site and see if you recognize some of our previous outstanding awardees! Some of them may be working in your Regions or Affiliate now as Challenge Masters, Team Managers or just about anywhere else an experienced hand is needed! You can view past award recipients by clicking here.

Send any questions to: The Scholarship Chairs.  We will do our best to give you a timely answer!