RSS fifth-graders take global DI title
June 5, 2024 at 11:39 p.m.
Ridge Street Elementary School is no stranger to Destination Imagination (DI) competitions.
“I started here 18 years ago, and it had already been here for a while,” Tracy Taylor, the principal of the school, recalled.
While going to the 2024 Global Finals over Memorial Day weekend may not have been Taylor’s first time traveling to support her DI students, it’s the first time she left the event with a sore throat—having yelled her voice hoarse alongside their parents after seeing the results posted on the big screen.
“We were floored,” she said. “It said ‘BMP Ridge Street School’ on the huge screen. They won.”
DI, an international program, promotes creative problem-solving by presenting students with challenges relating to several categories including engineering, fine arts and public service.
“It’s a great program,” Taylor said. “Kids learn about problem solving, critical thinking and collaboration in a nontraditional environment.”
Every year, teams of up to seven students select their preferred category, work on a project together and present what they’ve put together in a competitive environment.
On top of that, groups are given an Instant Challenge, a surprise activity that tests their quick-thinking skills. “They’re almost like MacGyver challenges,” Taylor said. “Kids have to use the tools they’re given to solve or build something and present it to judges.”
Beginning at regional level contests, the top two teams in each category and grade level advance to the state-wide competition and do their best to qualify for the global stage. There, 1,500 students from around the world strive to take home gold medals in their respective divisions.
According to Taylor, teams from the building often make it to the worldwide rounds.
“We usually do well in DI. We’ve had groups make it to the Global Finals, but we’ve only made the top 10,” she said.
But this year, that track record changed.
On Saturday, May 25, at the 2024 Global Finals in Kansas City, Mo., a team of seven fifth-grade girls shattered all expectations by taking home the gold—winning first place in their fine arts category.
A two-year trip to the top
The team, managed by parent Erica Tapper, gathered in her Deer Run home to reminisce about their experience on Tuesday, June 4.
Bhoomi Dharmashankar, Anna Lomenso, Sakura Murray, Reha Prathy, Ella Seif and sisters Ellie and Megan Tapper excitedly recounted their path to becoming world champions.
All seven started participating in DI as third graders, but on different teams.
“When we started, Anna and I were on a team with other people,” Murray recalled. But at the end of their season, their former teammates decided to move away from the program. It left the two girls searching for a new group.
But as the DI community within Blind Brook is a small one, they didn’t have to look for very long.
“We heard through word of mouth that Anna and Sakura were looking for a team, we decided to accommodate them and have them join us,” Tapper said.
Thus, the Toto-ly Oz-some Girls were born.
The unique team name stems from their first project together—a Wizard of Oz themed story.
While they were enthusiastic to compete in DI, there were some growing pains to go through.
“At the beginning of that year, I barely knew anyone,” Murray said. “I had met them before, but I didn’t know their characteristics or what their strengths and weaknesses were.”
It led to some struggles with the instant challenges—the chemistry wasn’t there yet.
Ellie Tapper (left), Reha Prathy, Ella Seif, Sakura Murray and Bhoomi Dharmashankar perform their play “We Need the Bees” at the Destination Imagination 2024 Global Finals competition.Courtesy of Erica Tapper
“The time pressure was something that really got to them,” their manager said. “They certainly struggled with that in the beginning.”
“We were the team that always asked how much time we had left every 15 seconds,” Seif joked.
But despite their early difficulties, the group of Bluebirds performed well—advancing to the Global Finals. That year, they finished ninth overall in the fine arts category.
It gave them the momentum they needed for a fresh start as fifth-graders.
They began the year by setting three goals: making a judge laugh, achieving a first-place victory at a competition and qualifying for the Global Finals.
The girls elected to stay in the fine arts category and were challenged to create a kinetic piece of art inspired by a static piece.
Ellie said they chose Keith Haring’s ‘Untitled (Dance)’ because of how easy it was to interpret in different ways.
“We thought the colors could be turned into fruits and the lines representing motion made it look like they were swatting away bees,” the 10-year-old explained.
The concept developed into a short play about the importance of the insects titled “We Need the Bees,” which the girls designed from the ground up. They wrote the dialogue and created their own props over the course of the school year.
“It was kind of a trial-and-error process for us,” Prathy said. “We started with marionettes, but they were too small to see from far away, so we kept thinking and evolving.”
They settled on backpack puppets, mounted over their heads and controlled by poles in each hand.
Their show, which ended with a musical number about bees inspired by Frank Sinatra’s “Theme from New York, New York,” was a hit with the judges.
After topping their division at the regional and state level, achieving one of their goals twofold, they found themselves once again qualifying for the Global Finals.
The trip to Kansas City was made possible by the DI Booster Club, headed by Ranjana Krishnaswamy, which raised $6,100 to cover the registration and shipping costs for the team. Their flights and hotels were paid for by the families.
Though confident in their prepared performance, they still had difficulty with the Instant Challenge. It left them anxious as they walked into their assigned judging space.
“We were all so nervous because we didn’t know what was going to be awaiting us in the judging room,” Seif said. Dharmashankar went around the room singing a song from “Finding Nemo” to ease her teammates’ nerves.
Though the girls were unable to relay what their challenge was, as they’ve been sworn to secrecy by DI, they were able to discuss their performance.
“It was probably the best I’ve ever seen them do,” Tapper said.
They left confidently—certain they made it within the top 10.
But as the top scorers were announced at the award ceremony, their team name wasn’t called when they thought it would be.
“I was actually crying because I thought we hadn’t made it when they announced fourth through 10th,” Dharmashankar recalled. “And then they said third and second and it wasn’t us.”
But when it dawned on them that their names weren’t called because they were being saved for last, the mood drastically shifted.
“I didn’t even register it properly,” Dharmashankar said. “It took a second, but my tears of sadness turned into tears of joy.”
“It was so fantastic to see,” Principal Taylor said after vocally reenacting her screams of pride in that moment. “This was the first time any of our teams made it to the top five, let alone first. We’ve been very fortunate that our teams have progressed so much.”
The girls were celebrated by their peers in the week following their return.
Murray said the team was called to the main office to take a commemorative photo but was also thrown a surprise ticker-tape parade by the fifth-graders of the school.
“They threw confetti and sang ‘We are the Champions’ while we walked,” she said.
While they were relishing their achievement, it was a bittersweet moment for the Toto-ly Oz-some Girls—this was the last time they would compete together as a team.
“We’re sadly losing two of our members because they’re moving out of state, so we’re going to be smaller,” Tapper said, referring to Murray and Lomenso.
But the girls vowed it wouldn’t be the last they saw of each other.
“We’ll see you at Globals,” Murray promised.
Although DI is less popular at the middle school level, Seif said the team will stick with it as long as they can.
“Nothing lasts forever,” she admitted. “But I know we’re going to try to stick with it as long as we can.”
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