Mercer Island students earn top 10 globally at Destination Imagination finals
Published 1:30 pm Tuesday, June 9, 2026
Special to the Reporter
Mercer Island students stepped onto a global stage this spring with solutions they built from scratch.
After months of testing ideas, reworking designs and solving problems as a team, six teams earned top 10 finishes at the Destination Imagination Global Finals in Kansas City, Missouri. The annual three-day event brings together 600 top student teams from 25 countries to take on open-ended challenges in science, engineering, fine arts and service learning.
Destination Imagination (DI) is a nonprofit organization focused on creativity and problem-solving, reaching 30,000 students annually. This year, Mercer Island schools sponsored 143 students on 24 teams representing grades 4-12, part of a global community of more than 5,000 teams.
The teams work independently, with minimal adult coaching, from ideation to execution. They developed solutions that blended engineering, storytelling and live performance, requiring them to design and build original components, test and adjust when things did not work. Teams have crafted original musical scores, built working elevators, fabricated dresses from aluminum foil and crafted science presentations filled with so much humor and information that you can’t help but laugh while you learn.
High school junior Nik Kini captures the DI experience by stating, “As I reflect on my eight years of Destination Imagination, I realize that it has become one of the most defining experiences of my life. This year, we achieved a top-three finish in Global Finals, a goal I had been chasing for nearly a decade. Every challenge, every late-night meeting, every friendship built along the way was a team effort. DI has taught me it is not the ‘power of one,’ but the ‘power of we.’”
Six teams from Islander Middle School and Mercer Island High School advanced through regional and state tournaments to compete at Global Finals. All six Mercer Island teams placed in the top 10 in their categories.
One team, The Anonymous Chickens, earned second place in the Scientific Challenge. The Crazed Monkeys took fourth place in Engineering, marking their second consecutive year finishing among the top five teams globally. The Crazed Monkeys also took home a special Renaissance Award. The appraisers stated: “This team presented an amazing ‘aluminum’ playable piano constructed out of cardboard that was modeled after the real-world aluminum piano that flew on the Hindenburg. A homemade air pump showed pure creativity. Their structure and weights, with a ‘propeller’ weight evoking the actual airship, pulled the entire presentation together into an integrated whole.”
The six local teams are:
• The Anonymous Chickens – Second place, Scientific (Secondary Level): Nolan Kim, Lucas Pae, Noah Tan, Ernie Fan, Nik Kini, Arnav Sachan and Elliot Chang
• The Crazed Monkeys – Fourth place, Engineering (Middle Level): Mitchell Dudley, Alfred Wang, Spencer Mi, Rishab Wishwas, Irving Sun and Bryan Hao
• Unhinged – Fifth place, Service Learning (Secondary Level): Tessa Baumgarten, Anya Singh, Ella Choe, Zara Belamoor, Asher Schultz and Maryam Gengler
• D.I.tastic 6 – Sixth place, Technical (Middle Level): Callie Baumgarten, Aditi Choudhary, Kanav Shah, Ryan Chen, Pranit Pradeepkumar and Arya Hersch
• The Flat Earthers – Seventh place, Scientific (Middle Level): Meera Mishra, Alice Shang, Felix Thomson, Anvi Gowda, Shaan Mehta and Ashleen Tsui
• The DI Vincis – 10th place, Fine Arts, (Secondary Level): Clare Capasso, Esha Shroff, Guillem Sullivan, Rowan Perez, Sahaj Shah, Neil Pandya and Kerem Cansizoglu
These results reflect more than rankings. The teams spent months, with minimal adult coaching, working through concepts, learning how to navigate different viewpoints and unify as a team, implement feedback, and building the confidence to present their work at the local, state and global level.
“The rapid pace of AI innovation demands that we equip our students with problem-solving skills, creativity and the ability to work through uncertainty together. I’m so proud of all the students that participated this year demonstrating their resilience to tackle complex challenges, work together for the good of the team and learn from mistakes,” said David Baxter, program leader and West Mercer Elementary school educator.
The Mercer Island School District has supported student participation in DI since 2006 reaching an average of 140 students per year across grades 1 through 12.
