Destination Imagination teams are gearing up for their state competition on March 24, but wait what is DI?

This is a question that the DI teams are asked on a regular basis by family members, friends, and teachers. It’s a hard question to answer because DI is so many things at once.“It’s creative problem solving,” says senior Sarah Craig. “DI means expressing my creativity in ways I never thought possible,” added senior Ally McLellan.

From a coach’s perspective, “DI is a group of kids using creativity and teamwork to problem solve in a variety of ways,” says two year middle school coach Julie Stephensen.

According to the Destination Imagination website DI is seven academic challenges in the  fields of  STEM, the arts and social entrepreneurship. It is students working together as a team, and getting a grasp on the creative process.

This year Presque Isle High School has two teams, The Anthropologist doing the improv challenge called “Treasure”, and Girl⁷ competing in the engineering challenge called “Drop Zone”.

Here comes the unanswerable question: What do you actually do? “We work together as a team to figure out a solution for a set problem,” says freshman Jenna Ouellette from The Anthropologist. “Our team is an improv team so we are given set things we need to incorporate and act out in our skit,” said Ouellette. Meanwhile, “We build a structure to hold a whole bunch of weight and make a story to go with it,” explained freshman Krista Williams from Girl⁷.

No matter which challenge the teams are doing, they are working towards one goal, and that’s Global Finals, the world’s largest celebration of creativity. This is a worldwide competition against the best of the best across the whole world and it’s held in Knoxville, Tennessee.

DI has been around for a long time, so why is it still so hard to explain? “Because it’s such an amazing experience no one can accurately describe it,” commented eight year DI coach Valerie Black.

This weekend the teams will travel to Bangor High School to compete some for their first time, and some for their last. “I’ve been in DI for five years and I’m a bit sad about it almost being over,” said senior Kailey McKenney. “It makes me thankful that I’ve been in there for so long and have been able to experience it, but it also makes me sad that it’s over. It’s very bitter sweet,”