Indian team qualifies for DI Global Finals

RIVERSIDE, CA) — Facing tough competition, a four-member Indian American team from Harvest Park Middle School in Pleasanton, Calif., won second place at the State-level Destination Imagination Competition held here recently and have qualified to enter the Global Finals at Knoxville, Tenn., during May 25-28.

“Team Unavailable,” which includes 8th graders Ishaan Alva, Aditya Bhaskar, Vasudha Iyer and Suraj Rajan, won second place in their category “The Meme Event.” The team took the Project Outreach/Service Learning Challenge by donating sweaters to the homeless.

Destination Imagination (DI) is a world-wide, volunteer-led, after school program whose purpose is to inspire and equip students to become the next generation of innovators and leaders.

The DI programs are developed annually to ensure they are relevant and align to National Education Standards, STEM standards, ELA Common Core Standards and Mathematics Common Core Standards. Teams used a creative process to identify, design, plan, and carry out a project that addresses a real community need.

With guidance from team manager Bhuvana Rajan, the team made it to the State finals after they won first place at the Regional Best of the Bay competition held in Dublin, Calif.

They also received the Renaissance Award for the engineering and design of their props.
Attendees from 45 US states and 14 countries are also expected to attend.