Neighbor News
New Heights on the road to Global Finals
Local youth to compete against students from 20 nations
After excelling in regional and state academic tournaments, New Heights’ Savage Cabbages team is currently on route to Knoxville, Tennessee to compete in Destination Imagination's Global Finals from May 25 – May 28.
Billed as “the world’s largest celebration of student creativity,” the international competition will include teams from 20 countries, including 41 from the Granite State. New Heights STEM Coordinator Wayne Moulton is traveling with the students this week, which begins with a 19-hour bus ride from Nashua.
“It’s going to be quite the bus ride, but well worth it,” said Moulton, who noted they are scheduled to arrive in Knoxville by noon on Tuesday, May 24.
The competition will begin on Wednesday afternoon where New Heights will present its solution to the Get a Clue challenge, one of seven open-ended challenges. The solution requires that students apply science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) skills in addition to skills related to improvisation, theater arts, writing, project management, communication, innovation, teamwork, community service and social entrepreneurship.
“The students—all 8th and 9th graders—have been working on and refining their solution since December,” Moulton added. “I’m excited to see how things go.”
According to Moulton, the students will also have “the incredible opportunity” to meet a variety of exhibitors at the competition, including companies like Microsoft, NASA, Disney, Google and others. The team will also have a chance to meet with their “Buddy Team” from China.
“We’ll exchange gifts, see each other perform, and learn about our cultures,” he said. “This is an opportunity for us and more than 1,400 teams and 8,000 students from around the world to experience something with life-changing potential.”
Janice Hastings, director of Development & Marketing at New Heights, said none of these opportunities would be possible without support from the community.
Our Destination Imagination Global Sponsors include 53 community members and Highland Hardwoods from Brentwood,” Hastings said. “Their financial support is providing our youth with an incredible experience. We are incredibly grateful.”
Highwood Hardwoods’ Anne Holiday said they supported the team, because they value and understand the importance of STEM programming.
“We were pleased to be able to support the New Heights DI team as they travel to Knoxville for the global competition,” she said. “We see this $7,500 donation as tuition to prepare our future workforce. We are thrilled with the programming and opportunity Hew Heights continues to provide.”
As for how he thinks the team will do once they arrive and get settled in, Moulton said the sky is the limit.
“Dream big and do great things,” he said. “We encourage our students to think positively and this is no exception. We will do the best we can—and that’s all I can ask of our team.”
To learn more about New Heights, visit www.newheightsonline.org. To learn more about Destination Imagination and the Global Finals, visit www.globalfinals.org.
