Many students spend their hours after school practicing for sports, working or doing homework, but a group of students at Notre Dame spend their time a little differently. Destination Imagination, often referred to as DI, is a STEM program that promotes creative problem solving.
At the beginning of the season, students choose a central challenge. They spend months working on this project until their regional competition. At the regional competition, the teams also have an instant challenge that they cannot prepare for.
“Teams cannot discuss what is done in this challenge to anyone else until after Global finals,” said junior Lily Schumacher, a member of the DI team.
Last Saturday, March 4, Schumacher’s team, Cheryl From Finance, competed at the Bay Lakes Regional competition in Sturgeon Bay. The team placed second in Show and Tech and tied for first in the instant challenge.
The team also received the Renaissance Award which is given to teams that demonstrated great preparation, outstanding creativity or skill creating a memorable performance
“I’ve been in DI for about seven years now, and I’ve always dreamed of being recognized for a Renaissance Award, so it was an indescribable feeling to receive it,” said Schumacher.
Another member of the team, senior Jack Mickelson, called DI “a wonderful experience” where “people creatively solve problems.”
“DI has taught me several things about myself,” he said. “It taught me that you can do anything as long as you set your mind to it. Being in DI the past two years I learned how to sew and learned of my love for writing. I am so grateful for the opportunities that have been given to me through DI.”
Last year, the DI team had the opportunity to go to Globals in Knoxville, Tennessee.
“To simply put it, [Globals is] a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity,” said Schumacher.
At last year’s Globals, about 17,000 people on the best teams in the world were there to perform and compete.

“What was amazing was that there were kids from China, Poland, Canada, Mexico and many other countries. I haven’t been involved in many extracurricular activities where you get to literally meet people from other countries,” said Schumacher.
The competition took place throughout a whole week and even included an opening and closing ceremony. Activities spread across the University of Tennessee’s campus. Schumacher’s favorite was pin-trading.
“From different schools, districts and states there are different pins. Some are from the current year, but there are always many from the past. There are certain sites on campus where people set up to find different state pins they want,” said Schumacher. “What I thought was so amazing about it was you have to just get out there and talk to people. I met people from many different states and made amazing connections.”
Last year’s DI team placed seventh at Globals in the Musical Mashup category. Their goal was to build a structure that could hold as much weight as possible and for it to function as a musical instrument. The skit also had to feature a musical character that solved the problem. Schumacher and the rest of team hope to get back to globals this year.
“After experiencing that, I’m beyond willing to put in my best effort to get back,” said Schumacher.