UH Students Take Top Honors In Walt Disney Design Competition

University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa
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Posted: Jun 28, 2001

University of Hawaiʻi at Manoa students took top honors in the Walt Disney Imagi-Nations Design Competition held in Glendale, California. Two student design teams placed first and third in the team competition and a student designer placed second in the individual competition. The UH Manoa student designers were selected as winners on June 13th, after making final presentations to Walt Disney Imagineering executives on June 12th.

Walt Disney Imagineering (WDI) is the creative force behind Walt Disney Company that conjures up and constructs Disney‘s theme parks. For the past nine years Disney has selected UH Manoa as one of several institutions to take part in the national campaign to identify potential "imagineers." UH Manoa design teams have placed in the finals for eight of those nine years.

In this year‘s team competition, the team of architecture undergraduates Myles Michibata, Mariel Moriwake, Jeremy Shoda, and Ryan Yamamoto won first place with their project entitled "Lumina." Third place went to architecture undergraduates Karen Lee, Tobie Leong, Jason Takatani and Duane Uchida for their project entitled "Shakesperience." In the individual competition, undergraduate Nicolette Davenport placed second with her project "Tum Tum‘s Paw Print.

The winning students will receive scholarships ranging from $1,000 to $2,000 each. First place winners Michibata, Moriwake, Shoda and Yamamoto will receive $2,000 each and the third place team members Lee, Leong, Takatani and Uchida will receive $1,000 each. For winning second place in the individual competition Davenport will receive $1,500. The winning students are also being given the opportunity to interview for positions with the Walt Disney Company.