PRESQUE ISLE, Maine — After months of teamwork, creative thinking and hard work, two Destination Imagination teams from Presque Isle High School will compete in the Destination Imagination Global Finals in Knoxville, Tennessee.
On Saturday, March 24, both teams, “Anthropologists” and “Girls to the 7th Power,” placed first in their respective divisions at the Maine Destination Imagination State Competition in Bangor. From May 23-26 they will compete in the Global Finals at the Tennessee Recreation Center and Knoxville Convention Center.
The “Anthropologists,” an improv team whose members competed in the “Treasure” challenge, won the Spirit of Discovery and Imagination Award, while “Girls to the 7th Power,” an engineering team whose members competed in the “Drop Zone” challenge, won the Renaissance Award for Outstanding Design, Engineering or Performance.
Presque Isle High School’s Destination Imagination improv team, “Anthropologists,” placed first in its division at the state competition on March 24 and will move onto the Global Finals in Knoxville, Tennessee, May 23-26. Team members include, Jenna Ouellette, lying across laps of, from left, Kailey McKenney, 17, Sarah Craig, 17, and Sydney Craig, 17. Missing from photo are team members Ally McLellan, 18, Skyler Ellis, 18, and Emma Postell, 15. (Melissa Lizotte)
Destination Imagination is a nonprofit organization that fosters creative thinking and leadership skills through challenges that focus on visual arts; science, technology, engineering and math; improv; service learning; and early learning. Regional, state and global competitions give students challenges that focus on teamwork, communication, problem-solving and thinking outside the box to overcome barriers.
Both teams chose their respective challenges in November and practiced three days a week leading up to the state Destination Imagination competition. The “Anthropologists” improv team researched 12 famous explorers and 12 cultures that those explorers likely visited during their life. The team studied all cultures, but did not know which one they would focus on during the competition until one was given to them at random.
Once the team was assigned a culture, their challenge was to find “treasures” related to that culture. Since they did not know how long they would have to search, they had to improvise lines to keep their skit going. Team member Sydney Craig, 17, a PIHS senior, said that improv allowed everyone to bring their own ideas and help each other throughout the challenge.
“Our team works really well together. Most of our team has been together for four years now, so we’ve become close friends,” Craig said, during a Destination Imagination practice session on Monday, April 2, in the PIHS library. “Improv allows us to add different ideas as we go along.”
Kayla Williams, 14, a PIHS freshman, is a member of the “Girls to the 7th Power” engineering team. The team created a structure that was designed to hold weights and incorporated the structure into a skit about humans invading another planet. Each weight placed on the structure represented the “weight” of more humans coming to the planet.
The team members performed the skit until the structure finally collapsed from the weight after withstanding 380 pounds. Since the team did not know when the structure would collapse, they had to use their creativity and imagination to keep the skit going throughout the eight to 10 minute challenge.
“We had to incorporate the structure into our skit and anticipate what could happen if the weights didn’t collapse it when we thought they would,” Williams said.
During all challenges, the teams performed without any assistance from their adviser, parents or other audience members. Instead they relied upon their team’s knowledge of their topic and abilities to collaborate with each other. They also participated in 5 to 10-minute Instant Challenges that involved no prior preparation and tested their abilities to deal with unexpected situations.
“The great thing about Destination Imagination is that it’s completely student-driven,” Valerie Buck, Destination Imagination adviser, said. “They learn about communication, leadership and getting along with others. All of those are skills that employers will look for when students apply for jobs.”
This year will mark the fourth time that many current Destination Imagination students have gone to the Global Finals and the first time that Buck has advised an engineering team. Aside from the competition itself, Global Finals will allow the Presque Isle teams to interact with more than 17,000 students from over 15 different countries and participate in activities such as an international block party, pin trading, a picnic in the park, evening under the stars and a costume ball.
The competition ends with a graduation ceremony for students who have participated in Destination Imagination throughout their high school and/or college years. Like high school or college graduation, students wear gaps and gowns, march into the arena and receive diplomas that reward their achievements.
“I’m most looking forward to the graduation ceremony,” said Craig, who will also graduate from PIHS not long after Global Finals. “I’ve met people from all over the world and the experience has made me more confident in my ideas and ability to solve problems.”
In the weeks leading up to Global Finals, the teams will spend Mondays after school fine tuning their challenges and fundraising for travel and lodging expenses related to their trip. Thus far the teams have raised $16,000 from fundraisers such as a spaghetti dinner, prize raffles, whoopie pie sales, babysitting services and an Easter Fun Day for children. They still have $9,000 left to raise.
The students have created a Facebook page that lists all fundraising details. On Saturday, April 7, they will be at Graves Shop ‘n Save in Presque Isle from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. to sell tickets for a Mother’s Day Raffle that includes a $5 Tim Horton’s gift card, Vera Bradley purse set, a $75 gift card to Amy’s Flowers and other items.
Williams, who also was involved with Destination Imagination as a middle school student, stated that the skills she’s gained have helped her build friendships and work well with different students.
“This is my third year on a team and I like how we get to see people’s strengths and grow together as a team. We’re always boosting each others’ confidence,” Williams said. “I’m excited to go to the Globals and see us grow even more.”
