Destination Imagination (DI) stars as February’s Club of the Month.  I interviewed DI team member Kieran Arora for more information about the team and competition:

The Eyrie: What is DI all about, and what does participating entail?

Arora: DI’s mission statement is “Creativity, Teamwork, and Problem Solving.”  Basically, you have a team of anywhere from two to seven people, and you meet throughout the year to work on one big “Team Challenge” which you can pick from six categories: Technical, Scientific, Structural, Fine Arts, Improvisational, and Service Learning.  After you pick one, they give you a specific challenge that is different every year.  Every challenge has a performance and building part, but some challenges have more emphasis on one part than the other.

E: Some of your team’s members don’t go to EPHS.  How did you come to form your DI team in the first place?

A: Our DI team was started in third grade, although our team actually became complete with me in fourth grade.  I don’t know how they got together, but Sean Kurtenbach, another team member, invited me.  Back then, everybody was in Eden Prairie, so that was how they knew each other.  Usually, the team manager would have a kid on the team, but our team manager had a bunch of kids who graduated who used to be on DI teams, so he just wanted to keep doing it and put out a request for team members and put us all together.

E: What was the most interesting project you’ve worked on in the past?

A: I think the most interesting thing we made was an elevator that lifted a person on the ground six feet up onto a stage.  This was just a small part of our project.  For the rest of it, we made a performance based on a sitcom where we had two apartments on top of each other.  We had a soundtrack and a theme song that we also integrated into the whole thing.

E: What are you currently working on right now?

A: Our regional tournament is this Saturday.  This year, we did the Fine Arts Challenge, so there wasn’t any tech involved or anything fancy.  It’s a musical, complete with singing and rapping.  The story is about a jazz club owner.  He wants to tear down the club that he used to perform in because it brings him bad memories.  There’s a flashback to the past, and it is revealed that one of the band members died, and that’s why he wanted to close down the club.  Finally, another person convinces him that people are still being inspired by the club’s music after so many years.  The entire skit is about eight minutes long.

E: Finally, why would you recommend DI to other students?

A: It teaches teamwork more than anything else I’ve ever done.  I’ve known these people for so long, and it’s really helped me develop leadership skills and collaborate with other people.