Dobbs Destination Imagination Teams Move on to Globals

The following announcement comes from the Dobbs Ferry School District:

Dobbs Ferry High School and Middle School Destination ImagiNation (DI) teams will compete at the Global Finals tournament over Memorial Day weekend at the University of Tennessee in Knoxville.  The teams will square off against students from other countries around the globe in the world’s largest creative problem-solving competition.

Only 35 teams from New York State win berths in the final international competition.  This is the fifth year that the Dobbs Ferry High School DI team has advanced to the Global Finals. Last year all three schools qualified to compete in the final round and placed in the top 20 in the world in their age groups.

Over 400 students in grades K-12 from schools throughout Westchester, Putnam and Rockland Counties, as well as New York City competed in this year’s Eastern Regional Tournament hosted for the first time by Mercy College in Dobbs Ferry on March 10th.  

According to DI parent Julie Coburn, the DI State Tournament, shortly following the regional competition, proved to be a dramatic and intense contest at Union-Endicott High School in Binghamton. Dobbs Ferry DI teams were the first and last to perform their challenges. Both the High School and Middle School teams placed 2nd in their divisions to clinch a spot in the Global Finals championship.  

Named “Vegetables,” most of the current High School group has been together since Middle School.  Team members include seniors Sarah Coburn, William Klassen, Jaren Morganelli, Kathleen Luckett, Nora Vose, and junior Benjamin Sterne. The team comanagers are Dobbs Ferry High School chemistry teacher Justine Henry and parent Ellen Prior. The Middle School DI team, called “inDicisive,” is comprised of students Gabriel Lane, Jaime Rockafellow, Nikolas Greenwald, Andrew Holzman, Benjamin Greengrass, Justin Cohen and Nell Klassen. The Middle School team is co-managed by parents Janet Roseff and Sue Klassen.  The winning Dobbs Ferry teams this year competed in the improvisational challenge called “News to Me” at the regional and state levels, and will tackle the same mindbending challenge at the Global Finals. For this improvisation students must:

1. Learn about different types of news stories 
2. Learn about cause-and-effect relationships 
3. Use cooperative human scenery and props to enhance their skit 
4. Create a 5-minute improvisational skit about the cause-and-effect relationship between two unrelated news stories 
5. Have all of their plans suddenly become totally discombobulated by a one- minute glitch “The students literally and figuratively think on their feet and can improvise at a moment’s notice,” said High School DI Co-Manager Ms. Henry. “I expect this team to do exceptionally well this year. They have spent many years together improving their craft and they have a sophisticated sense of humor which serves them well in the improv challenges.” 

To follow the action at the DI Global Finals and video stream the opening and closing ceremonies, visit the Destination ImagiNation website: http://www.globalfinals.org/index.php

Destination ImagiNation is the world’s largest non-profit, volunteer-driven organization devoted to helping kids gain practical life skills through interesting, entertaining and mind-boggling challenges. This community and school-based program begins in September when the year’s challenges are issued. Teams of up to seven students organize, choose their challenge and work for months honing their solution. Volunteer team managers facilitate the group, but cannot give technical or other assistance. Teams present their solutions at regional and state tournaments, before advancing teams get the opportunity to compete in the ultimate creativity showdown, the Global Finals, each