Students from The Academy of Science and Technology in The Woodlands Win Destination Imagination Global Finals

THE WOODLANDS, TX -- Brilliant, hardworking and creative; three words that sum up The Timekeepers, a Destination Imagination (DI) team from The Academy of Science and Technology at The Woodlands College Park High School.

As a global educational nonprofit, DI engages participants in project-based challenges that are designed to build confidence and develop creativity, critical thinking, communication, and teamwork skills. Due to the pandemic, DI’s global competition became entirely virtual for the first time in 21 years.

Team members, Abram Allen, Naman Arora, Marley Bartholomew, Jonathan Kim and Rheanna Patel, entered the DI Global Finals 2020 Virtual Tournament over the summer. Out of 111 submissions from around the world, their project won first place.

“Hearing our name when they called us, it took us all a minute to recognize that we had even won, because it’s such an amazing feat,” Patel said. “It took a bit to process and then we just started screaming for a solid hour after that,” Kim added. “We’re just proud and thrilled,” he said.

Given the prompt to create a skit in which two characters work together to accomplish a goal, The Timekeepers came up with a storyline that fit the category yet was still out-of-the-box innovative. Their project, 911: The MUSICAL!, covered an emergency operator and his telephone collaborating to achieve a day off from work. As if producing this unique plot wasn’t enough, the entire project was created via Zoom, per tournament guidelines. Watch the winning skit here!

The Timekeepers were also recognized for their Team Challenge Showcase submission for the original 2019-20 Technical Challenge. The judges presented them with the Renaissance Award, stating, “Between having the entire performance done as a Limerick, excellent design and technology on the Invention, and a mesmerizing stop-motion film, this team showed amazing skill. The engineering methods were used with such precision, and the level of detail for each method went well beyond just aesthetics. The transformation from a mechanical world to a natural world was beautifully done. This was a Presentation the Appraisal Team will never forget!” Watch that skit, here.

The team members agreed that the skills they’ve learned through DI will be useful throughout life. Kim noted that in his belief, the true power of this program is less about the projects and achievements, and more about the opportunity to collaborate with others, for participants to be able to expand on their abilities as individuals and as a team.

Through all of their hard work, this group of incoming junior’s most inspirational victory is the tenacity that they showed in the face of adversity. Amongst universal uncertainty, they persevered.

“This team didn't let the bleak circumstances dictate their future,” said team manager Cindy Kim. “They worked hard, believed in each other and stayed dedicated until the end, and are so deserving of this honor!”

Congratulation once more to The Timekeepers! For further information on Destination Imagination, click this link to visit their website.