When creativity, collaboration and problem-solving skills are becoming more important to Future of Work jobs, over 200 students came to build those skills at Southern New Hampshire University’s main campus on Saturday at our DIve In! program. The students, from grades 2 through 12, are part of the N.H. Destination Imagination competition program and took part in the training ahead of their March tournaments.
The event is organized by our alumni, adults who were on teams when they were students are now are in an array of professional fields.
“Today is about preparing teams with the skills the need to solve complex STEAM centric Challenges across science, technology, engineering the arts math or social entrepreneurship,”, according to Jenna Caputo, one of the co-coordinators of the event – and an alumna of the program who was on teams in Londonderry. “We have sessions that build our team members ability to work as a team, do so creatively, build skills to last a lifetime, and create something amazing that solves their chosen challenge for competition.”
“Global corporations and economic organizations are increasingly spotlighting the need for creativity, collaboration, critical thinking and problem-solving as part of the Future of Work”, according to Wayne Kurtzman, a board member of the organization. “The addition of the arts, and interpersonal skills, as we’ve been doing for decades, helps position Destination Imagination well for helping meet that need for New Hampshire’s students.”
Training sessions includes theatrical and presentation skills, prop construction, visual arts, solution generation, technology usage, engineering principals and more. Guest presenters included students, engineers and other professionals, including the popular Stranger Than Fiction Improv and Comedy Troupe to teach improvisational skills that translate to “think on their feet” skills.
Nearly 1,500 students on some 150 teams around the state will compete in Destination Imagination tournaments around the state in March and April, with the top teams advancing to compete with teams from 48 states and 30 countries at Destination Imagination Global Finals in May.
New Hampshire Innovation and Creativity Connection, NHICC, is a Granite State based 501(c)3 non-profit that administers the New Hampshire Destination Imagination program, and also runs Camp Gottalikachallenge. Learn more at www.nh-di.org.
New Hampshire Innovation and Creativity Connection (NHICC) is the 501(c)3 non-profit that administers the New Hampshire Destination Imagination (NH-DI) program for over 1,500 Granite State students from over 100 schools and community groups. Destination Imagination builds creativity, collaboration, critical thinking, and problem-solving skills around STEAM based Challenges.
Teams start in the fall, compete in March to try and advance to Destination Imagination Global Finals in May. Each year, over 1,000 people volunteer to help us run DI in New Hampshire. Many of these volunteers are among our 120,000 New Hampshire alumni – those who have been on teams when they were in school.
NHICC also runs one of the oldest STEAM summer camps in the nation, Camp Gottalikachallenge (nh-di.org/camp). And also one of the newest, Girls Engineering the Future (nhicc.org), in a partnership with Destination Imagination, FIRST and the University of New Hampshire.
Globally, Destination Imagination has 1.8-million alumni, 150,000 annual participants in 48 states and 30 countries.