Kaitlyn Chiles, an 11-year-old Jefferson City girl, has accomplished something rare at any age: She's created an award-winning board game.
The Lewis and Clark Middle School seventh-grader recently won a national contest by San Francisco-based University Games to create a board game, topping more than 200 submissions. She did it while still in sixth grade.
"I was completely awe struck. I thought there was no chance of me winning," Kaitlyn said.
She had told her parents she had entered the contest, but they had mostly forgotten about it, she said.
She said she considered a fellow classmate's submission more impressive than hers. "It was so beautiful to look at, and mine was just black and white," she said.
However, ultimately, Universal Games chose hers. Kaitlyn's mother, Kary Chiles, said Universal Games' CEO Bob Moog said the company picked Kaitlyn's game because it was "simple and interesting."
State the Picture is a geography game based on drawing pictures to describe the 50 United States. Up to four two-person teams can play the game, which challenges one teammate to draw items relating to one of the 50 states (such as a state bird), while the other has a minute to guess what was drawn.
The game's cover depicts a drawing of an "R" followed by a tin can and a hand saw as hints for "Arkansas."
Kaitlyn created the game as a class project in her Explore, Enrich, Research (EER) class at Lewis and Clark. She came up with the concept after bouncing ideas off a friend in her class.
Kary said her daughter is intelligent, but also has a good amount of creativity. She said Kaitlyn has interests ranging from "little girl stuff" to "dreams of being a geneticist."
She credits the public school's EER program with helping to develop her daughter's interests. The EER program, which is open to students with IQs of 130 or more, encourages independent learning and creative/critical thinking, among other things.
"She's fortunate enough to have been included in the EER program, which really affords her a much broader education," Kary said. "For instance, we would have never known about that contest. I truly wish every child could be exposed to that program."
After enrolling in a genetics EER class, Kaitlyn said she "got obsessed" with learning about genetics.
"I just like the fact that you can make vaccines and help people, especially with new technology," she said.
Universal Games made 10,000 copies of State the Picture, which is now being sold through 600 stores, including Toys R Us and Amazon.com. The game maker has developed and manufactured more than 200 games since it started in 1985.
Kaitlyn also won a $10,000 college savings bond and a $250 Toys R Us shopping spree.
She and her family won an expense-paid trip to San Francisco, as well, to visit the city for the first time and to see the finished product at the company's headquarters.
Kaitlyn said she and her mom got to play her game against a two-person team from Universal Games that included Moog and a game developer from the company.
"Kaitlyn is just a delightful young girl," Moog said. "She's very modest, very down-to-earth and very bright."
Universal Games has sponsored the contest about 14 times since 1994, Moog said. He said it encourages kids ages 5-12 to use their math, artistic and writing skills to tackle the challenge of creating a board game.