Amelia Earhart Elementary School Students Place 2nd in International Competition

KNOXVILLE, TENNESSEE — Seven fourth- and fifth-grade students from Amelia Earhart Elementary School placed second among 63 teams in their category at the Destination Imagination Global Finals competition, May 20-23. The team is the first ever from Alameda to place in the top three, and one of only three California teams to do so in 2015. The team, DI Express, consisted of Nicole Cramer, Adam Elmansouri, Cooper Gunning, Katy Hosokawa, Devin Kaneshiro, Amanda Lee, and Maylee Witte. Larry Witte and Bruce Kaneshiro were the co-managers of the DI Express team. Margaret Hosokawa provided coaching and logistical support.

The team challenge for DI Express was to create a performance that incorporated an expressive work of art, a functional art piece and an illusion. DI Express wrote the script, built props and scenery, and performed all the roles in the play. The focus of this year’s competition was a “feary tale” about a phobia. “We started working on the play in December,” said Devin Kaneshiro, one of the script writers. “Through the winter we changed parts of it so we could add more pieces and make it better.”

In addition to the team challenge, DI Express successfully completed an instant challenge in which it had four minutes to solve a structural puzzle. “We worked really well together,” said Katy Hosokawa, one of the leaders of the instant challenge. “We had to work fast and change our ideas to solve the challenge.” The combined scores from the challenges determined the winners. A team from China finished ahead of DI Express.

The Global Finals were the third stage of the Destination Imagination competitions. DI Express placed first out of 15 teams in the regional tournament in February, then second out of 18 teams at the state competition in March. “The team had to work hard for several months,” said Maylee Witte. “We had three practices or work sessions every week from January through May.”

“It was a lot of work, but we had fun,” said Adam Elmansouri. “We had to improve because the other teams were better at every competition.”

The team competed May 21-22, and received their results and award on May 23 at the Thompson-Boling Arena at the University of Tennessee, which hosted the event. The Global Finals included nearly 1,500 teams from 17 countries, and 8,000 students. DI Express was one of three teams from Earhart Elementary School to compete at the event, the most of any California school. “It was fun seeing our classmates compete at Globals,” said Cooper Gunning. “Our team competed in the fine arts category.” The other Earhart teams, Knights of the DI Table (managed by Paizley Spencer and Chris Keintz) and Put Down That Cookie (managed by Mike Yim and Andy Madsen), competed in community service and structural engineering, respectively.

The three teams raised funds to cover transportation and lodging. They received corporate and individual contributions, and community support at its parking lot sale and Glow-in-the-Dark Fun Run, as well as other events in Alameda. “It took a lot of work from everyone on the teams, the parents and the community,” said Amanda Lee. “We want to thank everyone who helped us realize our dream of competing in Global Finals in Tennessee.”

A heartfelt thank you to everyone who supported Earhart’s Destination Imagination campaign. 

Photo: DI Express, photo credit: 2015 Destination Imagination Global Finals Event Photos

Top, left to right: Larry Witte (team manager), Adam Elmansouri, Maylee Witte, Cooper Gunning and Bruce Kaneshiro, (team manager). Bottom, left to right: Nicole Cramer, Amanda Lee, Katy Hosokawa and Devin Kaneshiro.