Sahil Solankee

As a high school team, getting to state isn’t that difficult. But competition at state really ramps up. The hope is to place in the top six teams and advance to globals in May. Luckily, we can distract ourselves with prom instead of the awards ceremony. DI allows me to be creative and take chances in exploring different areas or talents that I may find interesting. The best part of DI is the overall good energy of the competition; it’s not like science fair where someone is trying to cure cancer. Our presentation is placed in a jungle and there are different characters with purposes to save the jungle, make a documentary, and find a cure to “botanophobia.”

Vinayika Papineni

It feels great going to state because this is my first time going to advance, and I’m really excited. After state is globals. I like being in DI because it’s a fun problem solving challenge and even though it can get stressful the people on my team are awesome and hilarious and they make it really fun. DI helps us explore outside of the box creative problem solving, and I think you need that in life as a basic skill. Our challenge is a technical challenge where we have to open containers creatively and create a skit based on it. Our team works well together, and we try to make the best of the situation. My group started out working two hours but now that we’re going to state we work three hours a week. The competition has been  really easy so far and the judges loved us all they had to say about our group was amazing things.

Natashaa Dalal

DI is basically a group that uses creative problem solving. I was ecstatic when I found out we were going to globals because I’ve been working toward globals since I was in fourth grade. After globals you just start the process over again next year and hope you make it to globals again. DI helps me think outside of the box; it gives me a new perspective, and I get to meet a lot of great people. My group did a technical challenge which involves identifying which containers had objects, and which containers did not, we had to present a skit in a creative way while doing it. We usually practice three to four hours a week, and we increase our practice time as we get closer to competition. Overall DI competitions are diverse and have a fun atmosphere and great people.