Montessori Discovery School

Olivia Hudgens, MDS Student Inventor Invited to the National Invention Convention!

Olivia Hudgens, a fifth year student at Montessori Discovery School, took her invention “The Kitty Kleaner” to the Connecticut Invention Convention on May 4, 2019. She just received an invitation to compete at the National Invention Convention in Detroit Michigan at the end of May. She was one of 1,200 students participating in the Connecticut.

Her job of cleaning the cat box for her family’s pet cat, Lucky led to her invention. With guidance from MDS parent IC leaders, Richard Berdan & Remi Lavergne, Olivia developed her idea and a prototype of her invention. Then she created a presentation board and polished her oral presentation. She was one of two winners that our MDS Invention Convention sent to the Connecticut Invention Convention and she was one of 75 students who received an invitation to compete at the National Invention Convention.

Olivia says she was surprised at how big the Connecticut Invention Convention was and impressed at all the inventions she saw. “They solved a lot of problems that I’ve had!” she said and added that she realized it would be difficult to get to the national competition because of all the great inventions. But, she was confident because she knew her invention solved a real problem and she had practiced her presentation delivery a lot. When it came time for the awards at the Connecticut Invention Convention, Olivia said she was “very nervous because it took an hour and a half and I didn’t hear about my selection until the last twenty minutes!”

Olivia says she had a great time at the Connecticut Invention Convention because there was a lot to see and do. Since it was held at the University of Connecticut, Olivia says she has a new appreciation of what a college is like.
It is a quite an honor to be invited to compete in the National Invention Convention and we hope that Olivia will be able to make the trip out to Detroit to present her invention there. If you’d like to visit her GoFundMe Page to help make that happen, click here.