By Emiley Morgan
A new scholarship offered by the George S. Eccles Dinosaur Park calls for a combination of creativity, imagination and adventure in its Zane?s Adventure Quest Comic Book Challenge scholarship program.
Ogden?s George S. Eccles Dinosaur Park is inviting college students throughout the state of Utah to enter comic book submissions following the park?s mascot: Zane ?the Dino Brain? and his adventures with dinosaurs.
The winner will be awarded a $2,000 scholarship.
?The scholarship will provide a way for Eccles Dinosaur Park to give back to the community,? said Aimee Edwards, a public rela-tions representative for the park.
Kevin Ireland, manager of Eccles Dinosaur Park, said in addition to giving back to the community, the scholarship will also contrib-ute to the education mission of the park while providing one lucky local student a unique opportunity.
“The Dino Park is about education, we”re about educating people of all ages about dinosaurs and what went on back then. We felt like we needed something new to reach out. It will both help us out with our marketing and give us something to give back by offering the scholarship.”
Ireland created the scholarship concept and came up with the comic book format.
“We were brainstorming on some different ideas on things we could do to add more excitement to the park and it just kind of hit us. We thought comic book or coloring book and leaned toward the comic book,” said Ireland.
Ireland said that if the comic book competition is successful, it will be continued by the Park in the years to come and benefit both park visitors and participants.
“The long-term goal would be to offer this competition every year so the colleges can pick-up where the last one left off allowing us to offer these Zane”s Adventure Quest for years to come,” Ireland said.
In terms of comic book content, Ireland said they are primarily looking for creativity. The comic book format gives the participants the freedom to use their imaginations.
“We”re leaving it wide open. We want people to be creative, think outside of the box and take it as far as they want to take it. Zane is our Mickey Mouse, if you will, he”s a paleontologist and he”s there to teach the kids,? Ireland said. ?There”s no reason that the adventures can”t be as wild and crazy as their imagination allows.”
Beyond the creative element Sonya Schiffman, secretary in the visual arts department, said that students who plan to compete should pay attention to scholarship guidelines.
“I would advise them to put their best work out there and follow the directions or guidelines because a lot of times those are really specific,” Schiffman said.
She also said that the scholarship could provide future opportunities as well.
“It might provide them with connections, and the chance to produce their work out into the real business world. It gets them out there,” Schiffman said.
The winning entry will be published and marketed at the Park gift shop as well as downloaded into digital format for children to ac-cess on the park?s website. Second and third place entries will be awarded $1,500 and $1,000.
The entries must contain 47 illustrations, contain a minimum of 15 pages and include a front cover design. Additional information can be found on the park?s website www.dinosaurpark.org.
