Many teenagers across the nation spent hours selecting out the excellent promenade outfit this 12 months.
Just a few teenagers, nevertheless, spent far more time than that making their promenade outfits themselves — utilizing duct tape.
The Duck Tape Stuck at Prom Scholarship Contest introduced the 2023 winners of the 2 $10,000 scholarship prizes — one for greatest tux and one for greatest gown.
Karla Tejeda, with the perfect gown, and Ian Rojas, with the perfect tux, are among the many 10 finalists introduced in late June.
Tejeda, from Los Angeles, California, informed Fox News Digital that creating her gown was “very difficult.”
She mentioned she’d “by no means created a gown earlier than.”
The 18-year-old’s pink-and-white French-inspired robe took 120 hours to make and included over 14 rolls of Duck Tape.
Tejeda mentioned she solely had a couple of week to create the robe — noting she didn’t begin the method till late May.
“It was quite a lot of trial and error, as tape isn’t the simplest factor to work with,” she mentioned.
Tejeda mentioned she sketched out the design and obtained to slicing — attempting to place the items collectively by including intricate designs to the gown.
Tejeda additionally mentioned she couldn’t have finished it with out the assist of her household and pals.
This fall, she’ll be enrolling in faculty — and mentioned the scholarship prize cash might be put towards her schooling.
Ian Rojas, of Taylorsville, Utah, used 11 roles of Duck Tape and spend over 57 hours creating his distinctive swimsuit.
The 17-year-old informed Fox News Digital that the creation was tough to make — however it turned simpler as he went on, he mentioned.
“At first, it appeared so tough to make the swimsuit, however as I went on, it turned extra acquainted to me,” he mentioned.
The teen mentioned his swimsuit paid homage to the Aztecs and Mayans that settled close to his homeland of El Salvador in historic occasions.
He informed Duck Tape that he needed to make one thing as a tribute to that.
“I needed to fuse the tradition of the Mayans and the class and formality of promenade put on with out [it] coming off as a fancy dress,” he mentioned.
He expressed to Fox News Digital the way it felt to win the scholarship contest.
“When I came upon [I won], I used to be so overwhelmed with pleasure,” he mentioned.
Rojas continues to be pondering of how he’ll spend his $10,000 prize — leaning towards touring to Italy for a mentorship program.
The 10 contest finalists had been positioned in 10 totally different states — Washington, Mississippi, Minnesota, Florida, Wisconsin, Georgia, Texas, California, Utah and North Carolina.
The eight runner-up contestants acquired $500 scholarships for his or her efforts and a Duck model prize pack value $100.
A panel of judges picked the ten finalists based mostly on a proportion breakdown of workmanship, originality, colours, equipment and using Duck Tape.
The Stuck at Prom Scholarship Contest started in 2001.
The concept has been to reward teenagers for his or her artistic concepts and execution in making a promenade outfit out of Duck Tape.
Since then, roughly 8,000 college students have submitted promenade outfits, and the Duck model has given away greater than half 1,000,000 {dollars} in scholarship cash, based on Duck Tape.
