JMU club brings home gold medal
Posted on August 30, 2007
This summer almost a dozen students from JMU competed in the Destination Imagination competition, facing off against 1,000 other teams to bring home the gold.
The students were part of a global competition held in Knoxville, Tenn. and sponsored by Destination Imagination, an international program that brings students from kindergarten to the university level together to compete in a variety of “challenges” that require them to use creativity and innovation. This year, JMU brought home both first and fourth place titles.
“The principle idea is to teach students the skills of thinking on their feet, thinking outside the box, being confronted with new things, and creating something creatively from that,” Jonathan Spindel, team manager, said.
The program, currently offered as a club and a class at JMU, is lead by Spindel and Elizabeth Armstrong. The class, ISAT 280, is open to all majors. With one section each semester, students are able to prepare for the competition in May.
This year’s competition featured 990 teams from 14 different countries, with JMU being the only university to represent the Commonwealth of Virginia.
“Competing on the university level is just starting,” Armstrong said. “JMU is the leader for Virginia universities.”
With no other universities from Virginia participating, the students can compete at the global competition each year. As more universities become involved, there will be regional and state competitions as well. At the moment, the state competition is being used as a mid-term for the students in the class, Spindel said.
During each competition, students take part in two challenges, the first being an instant, or improv, challenge, followed by the central challenge. This year, the 11 students participating were divided into two teams and given separate central challenges that involved technical and theatrical components.
The first JMU team was required to build a structure out of playing cards and glue that could hold as much weight as possible. The second team built a device that projected two images through a fish tank to form one coherent image. For each of these designs, the teams had to form a skit to describe what was happening.
“You never know what you will come up with nor the long process involved in finishing and presenting your challenge,” team member Sydney Ryan said.
Armstrong also got a lot out of the experience.
“There isn’t anything like the feeling,” Armstrong said.
For team member Ralph Herman, receiving a trophy with 18,000 screaming kids in attendance had a strong effect on him.
“I almost crapped my pants.”