It took 17 years for a team from Shawano School District to return to the Destination Imagination Global Finals.
The nine Shawano Community High School students who broke that barrier by qualifying for the competition have high hopes the district’s second visit is only a year away.
“I really hope we can go again next year and do even better,” junior Hannah Busch said.
Two teams advanced to the Global Finals, held May 21-25 in Knoxville, Tenn., by capturing regional titles in Oconto Falls and state championships in Stevens Point.
“These kids are such crazy hard workers to get this far,” said Emily Schwartz, one of the two coaches who accompanied Shawano’s teams, comprised of freshmen and juniors, to the finals last month.
“They learned the importance of perseverance, patience, dedication, socialization, teamwork, conflict resolution, record keeping and gratitude,” said Shawano Community Middle School seventh-grade teacher Tracy Laude, who coached McFly’s DIvergent Thinkers.
The DIvergent Thinkers tied for 20th place among the 72 schools from across the globe competing at the secondary level. Team members were juniors Busch, Holly Schwecke, Quincy Burr, Ailysh Tetting and Namara Panzer.
The DIvergent Thinkers competed in the Pandemonium category, which included a five-minute improvisational skit featuring interaction between a contemporary character and a character from the past. The students used stage makeup to develop and enhance one of the characters.
The students enjoyed watching other teams at the finals.
“It was great when I watched how they worked together and came up with different solutions to the same problem,” Panzer said.
The Above and Beyond team placed 36th among 38 schools in the Pitch and Play challenge, which promoted service learning by addressing a community need.
Freshmen Cassandra Whitehouse, Rachel Marquette, Caitlin Drews and Emily Jones competed against upperclassmen in the category.
Besides competing, the students also met people from NASA and National Geographic.
“It was nice to be able to talk to them and learn more about what they do and how we can use certain resources they have to become a quicker and more creative thinker,” Marquette said.
Schwartz, who is the middle school’s family and consumer science teacher, said the students already are looking forward to next year’s Destination Imagination challenges.
“They will all be back, with Tracy’s (Laude) having one more year while my group has three more years,” Schwartz said.
Destination Imagination’s objective is to teach students creative processes, including imagination and innovation, and how to apply those skills toward challenges in science, technology, engineering, mathematics and the arts.
The Global Finals drew 1,421 teams and more than 8,000 students.
Laude said community support made the trip to Tennessee possible.
“Words cannot express how grateful both teams are to the school district, local businesses and families for the support and encouragement,” Laude said.
The last time a team from the Shawano School District went to the finals of the competition, formerly known as Odyssey of the Mind, was 1997.
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