On March 8th, teams ranging from elementary to high school from all over Westchester County arrived at Mercy College. They were about to compete in a program called Destination Imagination (DI). An uneasy feeling of excitement permeated throughout the building as teams were getting ready to perform their skits. Loud voices of children and parents filled the air.
DI is a worldwide program where schools gather teams to meet after school to practice working together as a team and getting to know each other. They have a coach who is in charge of the team, usually a teacher. They are then presented with a couple challenges to choose from. Each challenge is unique; some feature building, some feature creating a skit, some feature improvisation, etc. There are seven challenges; these include: Technical, Scientific, Fine Arts, Improvisational, Structural and Service Learning. There is also a non-competitive Early Learning Challenge that allows participants to build social and problem solving skills.
To be a part of DI, you must audition (the audition is different each year) in front of the team coach and be accepted. Each team consists of seven members. Sixth grader Alexa Marchant commented, “DI is a really fun experience. It teaches you to work together as a team and to think creatively.”
This year, the Dobbs Ferry Middle School had one team, though each school can have more than one team. The DI team at DFMS was coached by Mrs. Lucia Palladino, 6th grade math teacher. They did the Fine Arts challenge, scoring 8th place in the competition. “It’s very scary. You never know what the judges are going to say,” said Marchant. Nine teams in total competed in the Fine Arts challenge.
In each challenge, those who come in 1st and 2nd place are able to move on to the next competition. The first competition is “Regional,” so in the case of Dobbs Ferry, they would compete against all of the teams in Westchester. If a team wins Regionals, they move on to the second competition, “States”. This means that they would compete against all of the teams in the state. Finally, if they win this, they would move on to “Globals”. Here, they compete against all of the DI teams in the world who have made it to this point. “Although we didn’t move on to states, and even though we placed eighth place out of nine, our team ‘Diagnosed with Talent’ grew a lot as a team and individually,” said fellow sixth grader Leah Hinksmon.
Not only do the teams have to compete through their main challenge, but another part of their final score is an “Instant Challenge.” An instant challenge is a challenge that is presented to them on the spot, and they must create a skit in front of the watching judges.
Finally, the team’s points from the instant challenge and the main challenge are added together and compared to the other teams’ scores. 1st, 2nd and 3rd places all get medals. For the the other places, that is the end of their DI journey for the year. But of course, they can always try out again next year! “What makes DI fun is that you get to be creative and be funny. You get to do things you wouldn’t normally do,” said Marchant.
“DI was a lot of work, but it’s full of lots of fun and excitement,” added Hinksmon. “Despite the season ending so abruptly, it was a phenomenal experience for all.”