Three Hamilton Southeastern Destination ImagiNation (DI) teams competed in the Global Finals at the University of Tennessee Knoxville from May 23-27.
The Hamilton Southeastern Junior High Improv Team finished 10th out of 70 teams. Team members are Matt Wilson, Alexx Powell, Sarah Feid, Casey Bosler, Katie Keck and Kayleigh Bray.
The Improv Team from HSE High School finished 12th out of 59 teams. Members are Samantha Hopkins, Michael Hopkins, Kyle Rinne, Justin Morrow, Brian Nash and Tyler Gaw. Also from HSEHS, the CSI:DI team finished 34th out of 56. These team members are Chris Boyd, Stefanie Cogswell, Thomas Flockenhaus, Chelsey Stanley, Kaitlyn Harmon and Emily Jackson.
HSEJH teacher Kathy Seitz is the DI school coordinator and each team had a parent manager: H.S. Improv, Greg Hopkins; High school CSI:DI, Leah Stanley; J.H. Improv, Tanja Wilson.
These teams qualified at the state tournament April 21 and captured a coveted spot at Global Finals, where they competed with 991 team participants from around the world. Seitz said HSE alumni also were at Global Finals with Laura Theobald earning a first place with the James Madison University team. The DI Extreme Challenge for college students featured a second place win from HSE alumni Elizabeth Newell and Abbey Hoekzema.
Creativity has never been more in the news, with everyone from elementary school teachers to giant corporations and big universities looking for ways to develop and nurture creativity. With the world changing at record speed and new technologies developing every day, savvy leaders recognize that the future belongs to those who can think in non-traditional ways, outside the confines of business-as-usual. Preparing leaders of tomorrow to meet the challenge is the goal of Destination ImagiNation, a school and community-based creativity program that instills participants with the skills they need to think within and outside-the-box, to work together as teams, to problem-solve and to embrace diversity.
“Destination ImagiNation, Inc.’s annual problem-solving and creativity program gives participants a chance to develop unique and innovative solutions to one of five different challenges,” explains Bob Purifico , President of Destination ImagiNation, Inc. “Local schools and communities facilitate the program, with teams participating in Regional and Affiliate Tournaments before our annual international event, Global Finals. A synopsis of the five Challenges available to this year’s teams can be found at http://www.destinationimagination.org.
