5 Novi Teams Make Destination Imagination Finals

NOVI, MI —Five teams from the Novi Community School District qualified for this month’s Destination Imagination Global Finals in Tennessee. The teams will compete against more than 1,400 teams from around the world during the four-day event, held May 24-27, on the University of Tennessee campus in Knoxville.

“We have had great success with our teams competing down in Knoxville,” said Donna Collins, co-coordinator for Novi’s teams. “The best we have done was second place in engineering back in 2009.”

Destination Imagination is dedicated to teaching students the creative process through STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics), and the arts and service learning challenges. For more than 30 years, Destination Imagination has been a leader in project-based learning and has helped more than 1.5 million kids tap into their creativity.

Teams that advance past regional tournaments are invited to participate in the Global Finals. Each May, more than 8,000 of the world’s most innovative minds gather in Knoxville, where they can showcase their challenge solutions, celebrate creativity and have fun.

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Michigan will be represented at the finals by 69 teams, competing against teams from 15-plus countries, including China, Korea, Poland and Canada. While five Novi qualified, only four teams plan to compete in this year’s finals, which will draw more than 17,000 attendees to the Knoxville Convention and Exhibition Center.

The Novi teams will compete at the elementary school (Engineering Challenge), middle school (Scientific Challenge) and high school levels (Service Learning Challenge and Fine Arts Challenge).

For the second straight year, the elementary level team of Milan Thurman, Morgan Yono, Paige O'Connor, Isabelle Shi, Shrinitha Balraj Carson Lloyd (South Lyon), Collin Lloyd (South Lyon), and Lawrence Thurman (manger) are headed to the finals. All are fifth-grade students, except Collin Lloyd, who is in fourth grade.

The other Novi teams competing in the 2017 finals are:

Middle school (Scientific): Seth Frankling, Alyson Gilghrist, Nikitha Hadya, Spandana Kodali, Ian Marshall, Tiffany Rennells, Julia Tauro, and Lesley Tauro (manager).

First high school (Service Learning): Neha Chinimilli, Anjani Mallireddy, Aryan Batra, Pranamya Konanur, Varad Mulay, Avani Vinod, Kavin Bala, and Sree Chinimilli (manager).

Second high school (Fine Arts): freshmen Grace Niu, Ashley Zhou, Lili Shibata, Selena Huang, and Dong Zhou (manager).

There was also another Novi elementary team that qualified, but for a variety of reasons decided not to attend the Global Finals this year. That group – third-graders Ishaan Thurman, Piedro di Domenico, Ivie Schira, Anika Kumar, Sophie Long, and fourth-grader Yug Patel – competed in the Scientific Challenge.

Photo courtesy of the Novi Community School District