|THE REMARKER |life| May 12, 2017 |
14 FEATURES WORKS FROM STUDENTS, FACULTY
Senior Dhruv Prasad hosts Ceramics Gallery by Sid Vattamreddy
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enior Dhruv Prasad hosted the school’s first ever Ceramics Gallery May 6. Over 30 of Prasad’s pots were featured in Nearburg’s Flex Gallery from 1 to 3 p.m. Prasad came up with the idea for a gallery because he had never been able to showcase his art. “There hasn’t really been a place on campus for peo-
ple in the Fine Arts program to show their work, and I really wanted to show my work,” Prasad said. Ceramics instructor Scott Ziegler feels that the gallery was a great place for Prasad to showcase his work. “This is Dhruv’s way to show what he’s been working on for the last four years,” Ziegler said. Although the admin-
istration was supportive of Prasad’s idea, he found it difficult to set up and reserve space in the Flex Gallery. “I talked to people in the Business Department and got to the head,” Prasad said. “I wrote a proposal and sent it to her, and she told me she and Mr. Gonzalez decided St. Mark’s didn’t have the ‘bandwidth’ to host such an event.”
Prasad then talked to Ziegler, who pointed him to Fine Arts Department Chair Marion Glorioso. Glorioso helped Prasad turn the idea into a school activity. “I wrote up a new proposal and sent emails to more administrators and they said no again,” Prasad said. “I was fortunate enough that Ms. Glorioso was able to talk to them again and get
it done.” Ziegler hopes more visual artists can showcase their hard work in galleries like this one. “The lacrosse player is able to exhibit his abilities on the field, and the performing arts are able to do their concert or show on stage,” Ziegler said. “This is a great opportunity for visual artists to exhibit work.”
SAHIL DODDA
IMAGINING GREATER HEIGHTS
IMAGINEERS After winning second place in the DI state competition in April, Dodda (second from left) celebrates with his DI teammates, ready to compete in the global finals in May.
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eventh-grader Sahil Dodda has been an active participant in Destination Imagination (DI), a program that aims to make ideas a reality through creative projects, for seven years. In his first four years, he’s constantly dedicated his time to improving various projects for the program with his team, participating in tournaments at the same time. In fourth grade, however, all the hard work paid off. He broke through the barrier. Dodda and his team had finally qualified for the global finals, a feat that only 8,000 people around the world accomplish each year. Not only that, in fifth grade, he and his team took first place at the global finals by making a project dedicated to fighting the ebola crisis. And now, after qualifying for the global finals yet again in sixth and seventh grade, he’s ready to take on the international challenge again in late May for the fourth consecutive year. ••• Dodda first started his career in DI in kindergarten, when he saw one of his friends doing a project for the program. “I told my mom I wanted to do the same thing too,” Dodda said. “There was already a team from the people I knew beforehand, so we just got together and started practicing.” Now, Dodda goes to his DI meetings on a regular basis. During each team meeting, Dodda and his team have to accomplish many tasks in order to perfect their projects in a short amount of time. “In the beginning of the meetings, we go on to a whiteboard, and we say what we’re going to do that day, so we
LIFE
SAHIL DODDA HAS BEEN TO THE DESTINATION IMAGINATION GLOBAL FINALS THREE TIMES WITH HIS TEAM. AND AFTER A GREAT STATE COMPETITION, HE’S READY FOR INTERNATIONAL OPPONENTS. try to complete what we said we were going to do,” Dodda said. “During practices, we just work on our project, and we also do something called Instant Challenges (IC). The program gives us a challenge, and we have to solve the challenge in five minutes or so. We do one or two of those every meeting, and at the end, we have snacks.” Going into his first ever local DI contest in kindergarten, Dodda didn’t know what to expect. He knew what he came to do, but he didn’t know what would happen. “I felt nervous and excited, both at the same time, during my first contest,” he said. “I was excited to do my best, and I was also hopeful because I wanted us to do well. Our coaches said that the contest had an actual awards ceremony, so I thought it was ranked. Since we were young, though, it turned out that they just gave everyone certificates for finishing the year.” Until now, Dodda has been to more than ten tournaments. He’s done both lighthearted and serious projects, from making a Leaning Tower of Pisa out of pizza boxes in his earlier years to completing a project regarding the refugee crisis in sixth grade. his year, he and his team worked on a project about people with social challenges. “For this project, we partnered with United Through H.O.P.E.,” Dodda said. “In our skit, we had a peacock that had no color in his feathers at the beginning,
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and after giving the peacock confidence, he has color in his feathers at the end. We’re giving the peacock confidence in the same way we’re giving people with social challenges confidence when we show them how to ride a bike or help them cross the finish line.” In order to prepare for the global finals this year, Dodda and his team need to take their project that they presented at their regional competition and refine it. “If you qualify past regionals, you just make everything better,” Dodda said. “You don’t re-do everything. You just work on your duct-tape work or make your costumes better or something like that. Right now, we’re working on our props, the paint job and all of that for the global finals. We’re also working on our IC’s since we didn’t do very well on those.” Dodda is excited at the prospect of returning to the global finals. “You always want to go to global finals,” Dodda said. “It’s a great experience. I’m just excited to go to globals, and I’m happy that I’m there with some of the best of the world.” ••• While DI has definitely helped Dodda improve his creative and problem-solving skills, it’s also taught his some valuable life lessons. “The program makes you more organized and disciplined to follow your schedule,” Dodda said. “Preparing for globals forces you to do a lot of stuff.”
STORY DYLAN LIU PHOTO COURTESY SAHIL DODDA
Putting together the project takes a long time, so you can’t just cram it in the weekend before. I guess it also makes you a better team player at the same time since you’re working with people at doing a project.” Dodda is excited for the upcoming global finals, but he’s also happy with his long-term commitments to DI in the future. “I want to do DI as long as I can since it’s exciting to do these different projects and be with the team,” Dodda said. “When I get older, I want to judge and maybe even see the younger generation perform their own projects.”
DESTINATION IMAGINATION
countries participating in the global finals
1,400
Number of teams in 2017 finals
150,000 the number of Destination Imagination participants in 2017
year the program was founded