$2500 for first place, $1500 for second, and $500 for third. Regardless of the final outcome, the three finalists that presented their submissions on April 21 are guaranteed a minimum prize money of $500. Needless to say, that is a significant amount of money. Through their hard work (time spent on artifact ranging from 40 hours to a year and a half), Tiffany Lien ’10, Megan Osinski ’13, and Gerry Praysman ’11 were chosen as the three finalists of this year’s Babson Creative Thinking Prize.

What is this competition exactly? Well as the description states “This undergraduate competition was designed to honor all forms of creativity including those that intersect with entrepreneurial thinking. The prize celebrates—and aims to highlight—the process that innovators use to develop creative outcomes in all fields.”

Each contestant (23 this year) is required to submit a “creative artifact” that illustrates his or her creative thinking process. The artifact can be almost anything and from almost any discipline, as long as it is the contestant’s own work. Along with the actual piece of work, the students must write a two-page essay describing their creative thinking process, detailing such things including, but not limited to, how the opportunity of creativity was recognized, how the idea was developed, how obstacles were overcome, and the interpretation of the artifact’s value. As the rules explain, “the creativity and insightfulness of the essay is the main basis for selecting the finalists” as well as the presentation itself.

This year, each of the finalists’ artifacts all fall under the category of art. Tiffany Lien spent 45 hours, using the technique of Chinese hand-knotting, making a dazzling white peach. Dedicating the artifact to her grandma, Tiffany went on to weave a story of her Chinese culture, her amiable grandmother, and how the peach represents her view on the special old lady in her life.

Freshman Megan Osinski exercised her painting skills in creating her artifact as she drew gorgeous pictures of herself on a wood plank that would end up becoming a formidable, emotion-filled tree trunk. In her presentation, she passionately explained how each picture represented different stages at Babson during the year, portraying her attempts at adjusting to this campus and finally happily finding her niche and settling in.

And with the most time spent on this competition, Gerald Praysman and his friend devoted a year and a half of their time researching the Middle East and terrorists, learning how to write screenplays, and eventually writing a screenplay that is apparently now being made into a film. He detailed him and his friends’ slow progression into becoming writers and all the complications and obstacles they experienced in completing their 90 page story (originally 150 pages).

Listening to each contestant’s enthusiastic presentation and seeing their artifacts was a testament to all the countless hours they put in. Without a doubt, each student should be congratulated on making it this far in the competition as well as deserving respect for managing to find the time to express their creativity amidst the Babson College workload and life.

On April 22, after a long day of discussion, the judges presented the final awards. So congratulations to Gerry Praysman for winning the grand prize of $2500 and Tiffany Lein and Megan Osinski for being the runner-ups! To all of you readers who have even the slightest hint of creativity in you, I say go participate in this competition in the coming years. The worst case scenario is that you don’t win; however, you will have a meaningful piece of work on your hands that you most likely won’t regret doing. Best-case scenario? $2500.