Five Leander ISD teams – from Steiner Ranch Elementary, Parkside Elementary, Canyon Ridge Middle School and Cedar Park High School – competed at the Destination Imagination (DI) Global Finals May 22-25 in Kansas City, MO.

“Destination Imagination this year has been such a blast and I’m so proud of the show we were able to create!” Banana Split Team Member Hope Nielson from Canyon Ridge Middle School said. “Getting to go to Globals with it was such a fun and unforgettable experience and I’m so glad we were able to perform our show there.”

At DI competitions, teams compete in Team Challenges, which take the form of a longer-term project which they prepare for the competition, as well as Instant Challenges, which provide teams with an opportunity to showcase their creativity and critical thinking in a fast-paced environment.

“Our team’s biggest achievement has been that through team work and discipline we have improved in our standings for the past three years we have participated,” 7-Up Team Member Ingrid Lee from Parkside Elementary said. “This competition has allowed us to take on areas that may not be our strongest and work through our challenges!“

While two Vandegrift High School teams qualified for the DI Global Finals, they chose not to attend due to graduation occurring on the same weekend as the competition.

2024 Destination Imagination Global Challenges

Scientific

Space Ninjas – Steiner Ranch Elementary – 8th place

  • Team Manager: Maura Graham
  • Students: Adeline Martin, Jack Clifford, Kaia West, Declan Archer, Zoey Littrell, Milena Nair & Zoey Maredia

Fine Arts

Banana Split – Canyon Ridge Middle – 9th place

  • Team Managers: Scott Nielson & Heather Nielson
  • Students: Hope Nielson, Sofia Malacara, Violet Ralian, Magnolia Carroll & Paula Martinez

7-Up – Parkside Elementary – 4th place

  • Team Manager: Anne Lee
  • Students: Ingrid Lee, Melis Birlik, Hashem Eltayyeb, Hazel Lee, Sri Samanvitha Chilupuri, Hridya Bino & Ashvath Paddapuram

Improv – So Extra + Extreme

Vandegrift HS 1 – Vandegrift HS – did not compete

  • Team Managers: Jacob Leffler & Cindy Reynolds
  • Students: Rachel Reynolds, Sameeksha Jayaprakash, Gauri Suresh, Rishika Mudundi, Advaith Suresh, Savier Leffler & Adrian Rapier

Service Learning

Creative Minds – Steiner Ranch Elementary – 10th place

  • Team Managers: Fanny Chandra & Bonnie Kwan
  • Students: Natalia Torres, Jaxon Baharudin, Nada Hafiz, Joshua Chandraraj, Kaius Mak, Naisha Penmetsa & Nithila Prithiviraj

Off Topic – Cedar Park HS – 7th place

  • Team Manager: Shirisha Reddy
  • Students: Anjali Carl, Brynna Doty, Aryana Tahadi, Helena Friedman, Sindhu Chidambaram & Autumn Wallace

Technical-Pinball Heroes + Extreme

Vandegrift HS 2 – Vandegrift HS – did not compete

  • Team Managers: Jacob Leffler & Pawel Bargiel
  • Students: Dante Leffler, Chris Bargiel, Siri Krishna, Sunaina Dewagan, Shanyu Suraparaju & Ronith Reddy