The Holly Avenue Destination Imagination Team won first place in the DI Imagination State Finals in Improvisational Speaking Challenge last Saturday, March 31. The Holly Avenue DI team was the only Arcadia elementary team invited to Global Finals against international teams, having won the Regional Tournament on March 3 at South Pasadena Middle School.
Nine of the more than 70 teams from the Southern California region participated in the regional tournament. Two of them made it to Finals. Holly Avenue Elementary parent volunteer Cindy Ong invited and coordinated all nine teams at Holly Avenue School to compete at the DI Imagination Regional Tournament at Six of those teams joined the Improvisational Challenge called “News to Me” and were trained by the RTWKIDS Public Speaking Program, the latter of which is headed by Ong. Ong said she never imagined this team would go all the way to the Global Finals. “We were very light-hearted about the competition and wanted to have fun learning about teamwork and improv public speaking skills, but over time this team’s chemistry has really grown to be immeasurable. They can really read each other’s minds within seconds!”
The team is now gearing up their skills for the 2012 Global Finals at the University of Tennessee the week of May 21-26, with over 1,000 U.S. and international teams from 30 countries, including over 18,000 attendees.
After months of training under “RTWKIDS Public Speaking”, an afterschool program at Holly Avenue Elementary School, developing strong teamwork, creative problem solving, and improv techniques, Team “Screamos” really embraced every concept, learned to focus, listen, and react to each other, and delivered a winning “improv” performance under pressure within minutes. The competition was to plan and perform two unrelated news articles in a cause and effect story, plus integrate a surprise element (such as all characters’ mouths are on fire) within only five minutes.
“This ‘thinking on your feet’ improv skill will really help them create strongcommunication and leadership opportunities in the future. In fact, in life, we all have to improv the unexpected and learn to take risks. This team is prepared to handle the unexpected challenges in life with creative problem solving and strong teamwork, within minutes,” said manager Ong. For many, improvisational public speaking is a very difficult competition. For Team “Screamos”, it is a social and intellectual challenge they all crave.
“My children are so addicted to improv and look forward to the team meetings so much,” said team parent Mrs. Park. Holly Avenue students Kaelyn Ong, Jaehyeon Park, Jaewon Park, Christian Lee, Highland Oaks student Pourobee Saha, and Camino Grove student Jessica Khatib, are a multi-talented group of 3rd- 5th grade students active in student council, public speaking, and theater. Kaelyn Ong is currently Student Council President and Jaehyeon Park is Secretary of Holly Avenue Elementary.
This is the first time that an Arcadia Elementary team has won the Improv Challenge at the State Level and in first place heading to Global Finals.
“I still cannot believe we are going to the Global Finals! It’s something we’ve all dreamed about,” said team member Kaelyn Ong. The team is comprised of a unique mix of Korean, Chinese, Iranian, and Indian cultures – a true representation of the multi-cultural melting pot in Arcadia. “If we can inspire multi-cultural teamwork and empathy now in our children, imagine how strong the future generations will be, learning to embrace different personalities and cultural backgrounds,” said Ong.
“I saw it as a great opportunity to push the limits in Public Speaking and Leadership skills for all kids,” said Ong, who is also director of RTWKIDS.
Holly Avenue Team “Screamos” came in first place in Elementary Regionals and will be attending the DI State Tournament on March 31st in Clovis, Ca to compete with all teams from the state of California. Congratulations to team members Kaelyn Ong, Jaehyeon Park, Pourobee Saha, Christian Lee, Jaewon Park, and Jessica Khatib.
“It was a very challenging experience but fun since we really learned a lot from each other,” said team member Kaelyn Ong. Middle School Team “DI-namite!” also will be attending State Competition after earning 2nd place in Middle Level Improvisational Speaking Challenge.
This year’s improv challenge called “News to Me” was truly a “thinking on your feet” intellectual challenge requiring creative problem solving, teamwork, and time management. At the competition, each team had five-minutes to plan and another five-minutes to perform a cause and effect story with two unrelated news articles. At the last minute, an unexpected situation called OMG was given to the team and expected to seamlessly integrate into their entire presentation. Creativity, Teamwork, and Strong Communication Skills is the goal of this Improvisational Speaking Challenge. Each team came up with the most hilarious solutions for their skits within only five-minutes. They have been trained to work efficiently with strong teamwork and creativity. Team Screamos efficiently planned and presented an OMG of “all character’s mouths on fire” in addition to relating two news story of “an earthquake in Russia” and “dog swims back to shore.” “This team has a strong combination of kids with different talents in Public Speaking, Student Council, Theater, and Improv skills, which are strong life skills for the future,” Ong said.
Finding creative solutions to relate the OMG, two news articles, working well with a team of 6-7, and finally presenting a clear entertaining performance to the audience takes extraordinary teamwork and strong critical thinking skills.
All seven Improv Teams have been working hard training for 3 months; they have mastered improv skills, theater presentation techniques, strong teamwork, time management, and creative “out of the box” solutions for presentation. In addition to the Main Challenge, all teams have a secondary challenge called Task Challenge in which they have to build a structure, “hands on” with paper, straws, paper clips, etc. within five-minutes. “Due to the success of this year’s teams and seeing how much each child has benefitted from this leadership and confidence building experience, I believe the teams will be even stronger in next year’s competition. I see many more teams forming next year in Arcadia, especially in the elementary level due to the need for hands on learning and social communication skills that this competition has to offer,” Ong said.
For more information on Improv Teams 2013 and RTWKIDS Public Speaking Program, please find us at the Arcadia Community Center Class Broschure or contact Cindy Ong at rtwkids@yahoo.com.