Harker’s middle school speech and debate team, coached by Christopher Thiele, had a successful trip to the Middle School Tournament of Champions in Lexington, Ky., this past weekend. Harker students earned numerous awards at the event, in which 33 schools representing 145 of the best middle school debate/speech entries across 15 states participated.
Policy: First place, Deven Shah, grade 7, and Julia Biswas, grade 8; second place, Andy Lee and Jason Lin, both grade 8; third place, Akshay Manglik and Aditya Tadimeti, both grade 8; and fifth place, Helen Li and Deven Parikh, both grade 8. Manglik got eighth speaker, Lee got fourth speaker, Biswas got third speaker and Shah got first speaker.
Lincoln-Douglas: Akhilesh Chegu and Rishi Jain, both grade 7, and Aditi Vinod, grade 8, all placed fifth. Chegu got eighth speaker, Jain got seventh speaker and Krishay Mukhija, grade 8, got fourth speaker.
Public Forum: Second place, Anshul Reddy and Sascha Pakravan, both grade 7; Reddy got fifth speaker.
Congress: Third place, Andrew Sun, grade 8.
Dramatic Interpretation: First place, Rhea Nanavati; second place, Arusha Patil, both grade 8.
Original Oratory: Fourth place, Arusha Patil, grade 8.
Harker’s speech and debate team has had a great run at this spring’s championship tournaments. Harker students, including some middle schoolers, have placed at championships in all five events: Lincoln-Douglas, policy, congressional and public forum debate, as well as individual speech events.
Our younger debaters had a great showing at the Western JV and Novice National Championship, held at San Francisco State University in March. Jai Bahri, grade 9, and Deven Shah, grade 7, were semifinalists in JV policy.
In JV Lincoln-Douglas, Kelly Shen, grade 10, also made it to semifinals. Joining her were Sachin Shah, grade 9, in quarterfinals, and Annie Ma, grade 9, and Alycia Cary, grade 10, in octofinals. In JV public forum, the duo of Kashov Sharma, grade 9, and Raymond Banke, grade 10, made it to the octofinals, as did partners Aimee Wang and Sascha Pakravan, both grade 7. Elen Guo and Phil Han, both grade 9, made it to octofinals in novice public forum.
Harker also had an outstanding showing in speaker awards at the championship. The first place speaker in JV Lincoln-Douglas debate was Sachin Shah. Also placing in JV Lincoln-Douglas were Shen in sixth place, Ma in 12th place, Cary in 13th place and Arely Sun, grade 7, in 20th place.
In JV policy, Deven Shah took second place, and his partner, Bahri took 10th. In JV public forum, Datha Arramreddy, grade 9, took sixth, Banke was ninth, Amanda Cheung, grade 9, was 13th and Wang was 15th. In novice public forum, Guo took sixth.
The season continued with the National Debate Coaches Association Championship. That event was held at Weber State University in Ogden, Utah, in April. Srivatsav Pyda, grade 12, made it to quarterfinals in Lincoln-Douglas, while Serena Lu, grade 11, and Emmie Malyugina, grade 12, were octofinalists. Also representing Harker at the tournament were the policy duo of Molly Wancewicz, grade 12, and Anusha Kuppahally, grade 11. In Lincoln-Douglas, Sachin Shah, Quentin Clark, grade 9, Lauren Fu, grade 9, and Ma also contributed to the strong team performance. Malyugina was also the 10th speaker.
Nikhil Dharmaraj, grade 10, qualified to compete at the state championship in original oratory and advanced to the semifinals. The tournament was held at Arcadia High School at the end of April.
Rounding out the spring series was the Tournament of Championships, held the last weekend of April at the University of Kentucky in Lexington. This is one of the most difficult tournaments to qualify for and Harker is extremely proud of Pyda and Malyugina for representing us in Lincoln-Douglas. Avi Gulati, grade 9, and Jason Huang, grade 10, also qualified in congressional debate. Pyda ended his season with a quarterfinal finish at the event.
Looking ahead, we will be excited to cheer for Aditya Dhar, grade 12, as he performs at the World Schools Debate Championships in Bali, Indonesia, in August. He was one of only five American students chosen to compete at this elite event. At the National Individual Events Tournament of Champions in May, Nikki Solanki, grade 9, will compete in dramatic interpretation, and Gulati and Dharmaraj will compete in original oratory. Also, in June, the National Speech & Debate Association Championship will be hosted in Birmingham, Ala., and Harker will be represented by Huang in World Schools Debate, and Galati and Dharmaraj in original oratory. We are excited to report further as these events take place.
This article originally appeared in the summer 2016 Harker Quarterly.
By Greg Achten and Jenny Alme
Harker’s speech and debate team finished the 2015-16 season strong, with many students earning national honors and awards. The end-of-the-year championship tournaments were a capstone to another great season in which Harker students competed against the best and brightest students nationwide. The success of our students at those tournaments is a testament to their hard work and all that they have learned this year.
Upper School Team Success
Harker’s upper school speech and debate team attended several end-of-year championship tournaments. Qualifying for these tournaments was a great honor, resulting from top performances throughout the year. Twelve Harker students competed at the National Debate Coaches Association National Championship in Orlando, Fla. At the tournament, Raymond Xu and Srivatsav Pyda, both juniors, advanced to the elimination rounds in Lincoln-Douglas Debate. Xu lost in the first elimination and finished 17th in the nation, while Pyda reached the quarterfinals and finished fifth in the nation. Several Harker debate students also qualified to the Tournament of Champions, held in Lexington, Ky. Pyda was joined by teammates Aditya Dhar, grade 11, and Michael Tseitlin, grade 11, as well as Alexander Lam, grade 11, in congressional debate; Joyce Huang, grade 11, Emily Chen, grade 10, and Jimmy Lin, grade 10, in international public forum debate; and Emaad Raghib, grade 11, and Suraj Jagadeesh, grade 12, in public forum. At the tournament, Lam and Huang entered the elimination rounds as the top overall seed. They were joined in the elimination rounds by Chen and Lin.
Both teams reached the octofinal round of the tournament, finishing in the top 20 in the nation. In congressional debate, both Dhar and Tseitlin advanced to the semifinals. Dhar also qualified for the National Catholic Forensics League National Tournament in Sacramento, where he reached the final round of the tournament and finished fifth overall in the nation. In speech competitions, three Harker students qualified for the National Individual Events Tournament of Champions in Denver. Sana Aladin and Divya Rajasekharan, both grade 11, qualified to the tournament in duo interpretation of literature, and Nikhil Dharmaraj, grade 9, qualified in original oratory. Dharmaraj advanced to the final round of the tournament and finished fourth overall out of more than 140 students! Dharmaraj is the first Harker student to reach the final round of this prestigious tournament. He also qualified to the National Speech & Debate Association’s National Tournament in Salt Lake City, which will take place in mid-June.
Young Debaters Winning Big
One of the bright spots of the season was the success of grade 9 students throughout the year and especially at the end-of-the-year tournaments. Students from Harker’s team earned top honors at several late-season tournaments designed for students in their first or second year of competition.
The St. Mark’s School of Texas in Dallas holds a championship tournament in May for grade 9 and younger debaters. At that tournament Anusha Kuppahally, grade 9, and Maddie Huynh, grade 8, reached the semifinals and finished third overall. Both Kuppahally and Huynh also won individual speaker awards. At the Western JV & Novice National Championship at San Francisco State University, three Harker students were crowned national champions in their respective events. In second year public forum, Cindy Wang and Clarissa Wang, both grade 9, lost only one ballot on their way to winning the tournament. In novice Lincoln-Douglas debate, Kelly Shen, grade 9, also won the final round of her division and was named a national champion.
Many other Harker students also won awards at the Western tournament. In policy debate, Esha Deokar, grade 9, and Deven Shah, grade 6, reached the semifinals of the novice division and finished third in the nation. Meghna Phalke and Alycia Cary, both grade 9, reached the octofinal round of novice policy, finishing ninth in the nation.
Kuppahally and Jacob Ohana, grade 10, finished ninth in the second year policy debate division. In novice public forum, Raymond Banke, grade 9, Floyd Gordon, grade 10, Aimee Wang, grade 6, and Alina Yuan, grade 6, finished in the top 20 in the nation, while Sascha Pakravan, grade 6, and Anshul Reddy, grade 6, were in the quarterfinals of the tournament and finished fifth overall. In second year public forum, Betsy Tian, grade 7, and Shomrick Mondal, grade 8, finished the tournament in the top 10 in the country.
In novice Lincoln-Douglas debate, Karoun Kaushik, grade 6, and Aditya Tadimeti, grade 7, reached elimination rounds and finished in the top 20 overall. Also in novice Lincoln-Douglas, Rishi Jain, grade 6, reached the quarterfinals. In second year Lincoln-Douglas, Cat Zhao, grade 8, Avi Gulati, grade 8, Satvik Narasimhan, grade 9, Nishant Ravi, grade 9, and Suraj Pakala, grade 9, all reached the elimination rounds and finished in the top 20. Annie Ma, grade 8, and Neha Tallapragada, grade 9, both reached the quarterfinals and finished in the top eight in nation. Given the success of these young students, the future of the program is indeed very bright.
Middle School Team Success Harker’s middle school team recently attended the California Middle School State tournament at Skyline High School in Oakland, and many of our students won awards! In impromptu speaking Bryan Wang, grade 8, reached the finals and was crowned state champion. Avi Gulati also reached the finals of impromptu. In storytelling Gulati, Katelyn Chen, grade 8, Arusha Patil, grade 7, and Rhea Nanavati, grade 7, all were finalists.
In prose Nikki Solanki, grade 8, was a finalist. In oratory Gulati and Patil were finalists. In duo interpretation of literature, Chen and Wang were finalists. In dramatic interpretation Solanki was a finalist. In public forum debate the teams of Amanda Cheung, grade 8, and Jason Pan, grade 8, as well as Krishay Mukhija, grade 7, and Anshul Reddy were quarterfinalists.
Also in public forum, the team of Kenneth Liou, grade 8, and Jeremy Ding, grade 8, as well as Zain Awais, grade 7, and Chandan Aggarwal, grade 8, reached the octofinals and finished in the top 20, while the team of Datha Arramreddy, grade 8, and Vibha Arramreddy, grade 8, were double octofinalists. In Lincoln-Douglas Annie Ma and Cat Zhao reached the quarterfinals. Aditya Tadimeti was an octofinalist.
The following students reached the double octofinals in Lincoln Douglas: Sachin Shah, grade 8, Aditi Vinod, grade 7, Akhilesh Chegu, grade 6, and Montek Kalsi, grade 8. In congressional debate Nakul Bajaj, grade 8, and Andrew Sun, grade 7, were finalists.
The middle school team also attended the Glendale Middle School Championships. In policy debate Andy Lee and Jason Lin, both grade 7, were the tournament champions. The teams of Quentin Clark, grade 8, and Shah, as well as Jai Bahri, grade 8, and Deven Parikh, grade 7, were semifinalists.
In Lincoln-Douglas debate, the team swept the tournament, claiming all of the top seven spots with the following students being named co-champions: Shah, Akshay Manglik, grade 7, Tadimeti, Kalsi, Ma, Chegu and Zhao. In public forum Reddy and Mukhija were octofinalists and the teams of Liou and Ding as well as Cheung and Pan reached the quarterfinals.
In congressional debate Sun, Bajaj, and Reiya Das, grade 8, all finished in the top eight at the tournament.
The following students reached the final round of speech competition: Aaditya Gulati, grade 6; Shyl Lamba, grade 8; Annamma Vazhaeparambil, grade 7; Wang and Chen. Patil won the oratory competition while Avi Gulati finished first overall in impromptu speaking and storytelling and Solanki was named tournament champion in both prose and dramatic interpretation.
Karina Momary, head coach of the Harker middle school team, credits the success of the program to the work of the students. “This group of students has certainly worked hard individually, but more importantly has worked collectively as a team to support each other. Our success this year is a direct result of our students working with and for each other,” she said. The middle school team next heads to the National Junior Forensics League National Championship Tournament in Salt Lake City in mid-June.
Welcoming a New Coach
In fall, Marjorie Hazeltine will transition from the middle school to the upper school to become the head coach of the Harker speech and congressional debate teams. Hazeltine had previously worked with the Harker middle school team, in addition to teaching English classes. She joins returning upper school coaches Jenny Alme and Greg Achten. Department chair Alme noted, “The upper school students and coaches are thrilled to have Ms. Hazeltine join us. She is very talented and has a great track record of success as a coach.”
This article originally appeared in the summer 2016 Harker Quarterly.
By Greg Achten and Jenny Alme
Harker’s speech and debate team finished the 2015-16 season strong, with many students earning national honors and awards. The end-of-the-year championship tournaments were a capstone to another great season in which Harker students competed against the best and brightest students nationwide. The success of our students at those tournaments is a testament to their hard work and all that they have learned this year.
Upper School Team Success
Harker’s upper school speech and debate team attended several end-of-year championship tournaments. Qualifying for these tournaments was a great honor, resulting from top performances throughout the year. Twelve Harker students competed at the National Debate Coaches Association National Championship in Orlando, Fla. At the tournament, Raymond Xu and Srivatsav Pyda, both juniors, advanced to the elimination rounds in Lincoln-Douglas Debate. Xu lost in the first elimination and finished 17th in the nation, while Pyda reached the quarterfinals and finished fifth in the nation. Several Harker debate students also qualified to the Tournament of Champions, held in Lexington, Ky. Pyda was joined by teammates Aditya Dhar, grade 11, and Michael Tseitlin, grade 11, as well as Alexander Lam, grade 11, in congressional debate; Joyce Huang, grade 11, Emily Chen, grade 10, and Jimmy Lin, grade 10, in international public forum debate; and Emaad Raghib, grade 11, and Suraj Jagadeesh, grade 12, in public forum. At the tournament, Lam and Huang entered the elimination rounds as the top overall seed. They were joined in the elimination rounds by Chen and Lin.
Both teams reached the octofinal round of the tournament, finishing in the top 20 in the nation. In congressional debate, both Dhar and Tseitlin advanced to the semifinals. Dhar also qualified for the National Catholic Forensics League National Tournament in Sacramento, where he reached the final round of the tournament and finished fifth overall in the nation. In speech competitions, three Harker students qualified for the National Individual Events Tournament of Champions in Denver. Sana Aladin and Divya Rajasekharan, both grade 11, qualified to the tournament in duo interpretation of literature, and Nikhil Dharmaraj, grade 9, qualified in original oratory. Dharmaraj advanced to the final round of the tournament and finished fourth overall out of more than 140 students! Dharmaraj is the first Harker student to reach the final round of this prestigious tournament. He also qualified to the National Speech & Debate Association’s National Tournament in Salt Lake City, which will take place in mid-June.
Young Debaters Winning Big
One of the bright spots of the season was the success of grade 9 students throughout the year and especially at the end-of-the-year tournaments. Students from Harker’s team earned top honors at several late-season tournaments designed for students in their first or second year of competition.
The St. Mark’s School of Texas in Dallas holds a championship tournament in May for grade 9 and younger debaters. At that tournament Anusha Kuppahally, grade 9, and Maddie Huynh, grade 8, reached the semifinals and finished third overall. Both Kuppahally and Huynh also won individual speaker awards. At the Western JV & Novice National Championship at San Francisco State University, three Harker students were crowned national champions in their respective events. In second year public forum, Cindy Wang and Clarissa Wang, both grade 9, lost only one ballot on their way to winning the tournament. In novice Lincoln-Douglas debate, Kelly Shen, grade 9, also won the final round of her division and was named a national champion.
Many other Harker students also won awards at the Western tournament. In policy debate, Esha Deokar, grade 9, and Deven Shah, grade 6, reached the semifinals of the novice division and finished third in the nation. Meghna Phalke and Alycia Cary, both grade 9, reached the octofinal round of novice policy, finishing ninth in the nation.
Kuppahally and Jacob Ohana, grade 10, finished ninth in the second year policy debate division. In novice public forum, Raymond Banke, grade 9, Floyd Gordon, grade 10, Aimee Wang, grade 6, and Alina Yuan, grade 6, finished in the top 20 in the nation, while Sascha Pakravan, grade 6, and Anshul Reddy, grade 6, were in the quarterfinals of the tournament and finished fifth overall. In second year public forum, Betsy Tian, grade 7, and Shomrick Mondal, grade 8, finished the tournament in the top 10 in the country.
In novice Lincoln-Douglas debate, Karoun Kaushik, grade 6, and Aditya Tadimeti, grade 7, reached elimination rounds and finished in the top 20 overall. Also in novice Lincoln-Douglas, Rishi Jain, grade 6, reached the quarterfinals. In second year Lincoln-Douglas, Cat Zhao, grade 8, Avi Gulati, grade 8, Satvik Narasimhan, grade 9, Nishant Ravi, grade 9, and Suraj Pakala, grade 9, all reached the elimination rounds and finished in the top 20. Annie Ma, grade 8, and Neha Tallapragada, grade 9, both reached the quarterfinals and finished in the top eight in nation. Given the success of these young students, the future of the program is indeed very bright.
Middle School Team Success Harker’s middle school team recently attended the California Middle School State tournament at Skyline High School in Oakland, and many of our students won awards! In impromptu speaking Bryan Wang, grade 8, reached the finals and was crowned state champion. Avi Gulati also reached the finals of impromptu. In storytelling Gulati, Katelyn Chen, grade 8, Arusha Patil, grade 7, and Rhea Nanavati, grade 7, all were finalists.
In prose Nikki Solanki, grade 8, was a finalist. In oratory Gulati and Patil were finalists. In duo interpretation of literature, Chen and Wang were finalists. In dramatic interpretation Solanki was a finalist. In public forum debate the teams of Amanda Cheung, grade 8, and Jason Pan, grade 8, as well as Krishay Mukhija, grade 7, and Anshul Reddy were quarterfinalists.
Also in public forum, the team of Kenneth Liou, grade 8, and Jeremy Ding, grade 8, as well as Zain Awais, grade 7, and Chandan Aggarwal, grade 8, reached the octofinals and finished in the top 20, while the team of Datha Arramreddy, grade 8, and Vibha Arramreddy, grade 8, were double octofinalists. In Lincoln-Douglas Annie Ma and Cat Zhao reached the quarterfinals. Aditya Tadimeti was an octofinalist.
The following students reached the double octofinals in Lincoln Douglas: Sachin Shah, grade 8, Aditi Vinod, grade 7, Akhilesh Chegu, grade 6, and Montek Kalsi, grade 8. In congressional debate Nakul Bajaj, grade 8, and Andrew Sun, grade 7, were finalists.
The middle school team also attended the Glendale Middle School Championships. In policy debate Andy Lee and Jason Lin, both grade 7, were the tournament champions. The teams of Quentin Clark, grade 8, and Shah, as well as Jai Bahri, grade 8, and Deven Parikh, grade 7, were semifinalists.
In Lincoln-Douglas debate, the team swept the tournament, claiming all of the top seven spots with the following students being named co-champions: Shah, Akshay Manglik, grade 7, Tadimeti, Kalsi, Ma, Chegu and Zhao. In public forum Reddy and Mukhija were octofinalists and the teams of Liou and Ding as well as Cheung and Pan reached the quarterfinals.
In congressional debate Sun, Bajaj, and Reiya Das, grade 8, all finished in the top eight at the tournament.
The following students reached the final round of speech competition: Aaditya Gulati, grade 6; Shyl Lamba, grade 8; Annamma Vazhaeparambil, grade 7; Wang and Chen. Patil won the oratory competition while Avi Gulati finished first overall in impromptu speaking and storytelling and Solanki was named tournament champion in both prose and dramatic interpretation.
Karina Momary, head coach of the Harker middle school team, credits the success of the program to the work of the students. “This group of students has certainly worked hard individually, but more importantly has worked collectively as a team to support each other. Our success this year is a direct result of our students working with and for each other,” she said. The middle school team next heads to the National Junior Forensics League National Championship Tournament in Salt Lake City in mid-June.
Welcoming a New Coach
In fall, Marjorie Hazeltine will transition from the middle school to the upper school to become the head coach of the Harker speech and congressional debate teams. Hazeltine had previously worked with the Harker middle school team, in addition to teaching English classes. She joins returning upper school coaches Jenny Alme and Greg Achten. Department chair Alme noted, “The upper school students and coaches are thrilled to have Ms. Hazeltine join us. She is very talented and has a great track record of success as a coach.”
This article originally appeared in the summer 2016 Harker Quarterly.
By Greg Achten and Jenny Alme
Harker’s speech and debate team finished the 2015-16 season strong, with many students earning national honors and awards. The end-of-the-year championship tournaments were a capstone to another great season in which Harker students competed against the best and brightest students nationwide. The success of our students at those tournaments is a testament to their hard work and all that they have learned this year.
Upper School Team Success
Harker’s upper school speech and debate team attended several end-of-year championship tournaments. Qualifying for these tournaments was a great honor, resulting from top performances throughout the year. Twelve Harker students competed at the National Debate Coaches Association National Championship in Orlando, Fla. At the tournament, Raymond Xu and Srivatsav Pyda, both juniors, advanced to the elimination rounds in Lincoln-Douglas Debate. Xu lost in the first elimination and finished 17th in the nation, while Pyda reached the quarterfinals and finished fifth in the nation. Several Harker debate students also qualified to the Tournament of Champions, held in Lexington, Ky. Pyda was joined by teammates Aditya Dhar, grade 11, and Michael Tseitlin, grade 11, as well as Alexander Lam, grade 11, in congressional debate; Joyce Huang, grade 11, Emily Chen, grade 10, and Jimmy Lin, grade 10, in international public forum debate; and Emaad Raghib, grade 11, and Suraj Jagadeesh, grade 12, in public forum. At the tournament, Lam and Huang entered the elimination rounds as the top overall seed. They were joined in the elimination rounds by Chen and Lin.
Both teams reached the octofinal round of the tournament, finishing in the top 20 in the nation. In congressional debate, both Dhar and Tseitlin advanced to the semifinals. Dhar also qualified for the National Catholic Forensics League National Tournament in Sacramento, where he reached the final round of the tournament and finished fifth overall in the nation. In speech competitions, three Harker students qualified for the National Individual Events Tournament of Champions in Denver. Sana Aladin and Divya Rajasekharan, both grade 11, qualified to the tournament in duo interpretation of literature, and Nikhil Dharmaraj, grade 9, qualified in original oratory. Dharmaraj advanced to the final round of the tournament and finished fourth overall out of more than 140 students! Dharmaraj is the first Harker student to reach the final round of this prestigious tournament. He also qualified to the National Speech & Debate Association’s National Tournament in Salt Lake City, which will take place in mid-June.
Young Debaters Winning Big
One of the bright spots of the season was the success of grade 9 students throughout the year and especially at the end-of-the-year tournaments. Students from Harker’s team earned top honors at several late-season tournaments designed for students in their first or second year of competition.
The St. Mark’s School of Texas in Dallas holds a championship tournament in May for grade 9 and younger debaters. At that tournament Anusha Kuppahally, grade 9, and Maddie Huynh, grade 8, reached the semifinals and finished third overall. Both Kuppahally and Huynh also won individual speaker awards. At the Western JV & Novice National Championship at San Francisco State University, three Harker students were crowned national champions in their respective events. In second year public forum, Cindy Wang and Clarissa Wang, both grade 9, lost only one ballot on their way to winning the tournament. In novice Lincoln-Douglas debate, Kelly Shen, grade 9, also won the final round of her division and was named a national champion.
Many other Harker students also won awards at the Western tournament. In policy debate, Esha Deokar, grade 9, and Deven Shah, grade 6, reached the semifinals of the novice division and finished third in the nation. Meghna Phalke and Alycia Cary, both grade 9, reached the octofinal round of novice policy, finishing ninth in the nation.
Kuppahally and Jacob Ohana, grade 10, finished ninth in the second year policy debate division. In novice public forum, Raymond Banke, grade 9, Floyd Gordon, grade 10, Aimee Wang, grade 6, and Alina Yuan, grade 6, finished in the top 20 in the nation, while Sascha Pakravan, grade 6, and Anshul Reddy, grade 6, were in the quarterfinals of the tournament and finished fifth overall. In second year public forum, Betsy Tian, grade 7, and Shomrick Mondal, grade 8, finished the tournament in the top 10 in the country.
In novice Lincoln-Douglas debate, Karoun Kaushik, grade 6, and Aditya Tadimeti, grade 7, reached elimination rounds and finished in the top 20 overall. Also in novice Lincoln-Douglas, Rishi Jain, grade 6, reached the quarterfinals. In second year Lincoln-Douglas, Cat Zhao, grade 8, Avi Gulati, grade 8, Satvik Narasimhan, grade 9, Nishant Ravi, grade 9, and Suraj Pakala, grade 9, all reached the elimination rounds and finished in the top 20. Annie Ma, grade 8, and Neha Tallapragada, grade 9, both reached the quarterfinals and finished in the top eight in nation. Given the success of these young students, the future of the program is indeed very bright.
Middle School Team Success Harker’s middle school team recently attended the California Middle School State tournament at Skyline High School in Oakland, and many of our students won awards! In impromptu speaking Bryan Wang, grade 8, reached the finals and was crowned state champion. Avi Gulati also reached the finals of impromptu. In storytelling Gulati, Katelyn Chen, grade 8, Arusha Patil, grade 7, and Rhea Nanavati, grade 7, all were finalists.
In prose Nikki Solanki, grade 8, was a finalist. In oratory Gulati and Patil were finalists. In duo interpretation of literature, Chen and Wang were finalists. In dramatic interpretation Solanki was a finalist. In public forum debate the teams of Amanda Cheung, grade 8, and Jason Pan, grade 8, as well as Krishay Mukhija, grade 7, and Anshul Reddy were quarterfinalists.
Also in public forum, the team of Kenneth Liou, grade 8, and Jeremy Ding, grade 8, as well as Zain Awais, grade 7, and Chandan Aggarwal, grade 8, reached the octofinals and finished in the top 20, while the team of Datha Arramreddy, grade 8, and Vibha Arramreddy, grade 8, were double octofinalists. In Lincoln-Douglas Annie Ma and Cat Zhao reached the quarterfinals. Aditya Tadimeti was an octofinalist.
The following students reached the double octofinals in Lincoln Douglas: Sachin Shah, grade 8, Aditi Vinod, grade 7, Akhilesh Chegu, grade 6, and Montek Kalsi, grade 8. In congressional debate Nakul Bajaj, grade 8, and Andrew Sun, grade 7, were finalists.
The middle school team also attended the Glendale Middle School Championships. In policy debate Andy Lee and Jason Lin, both grade 7, were the tournament champions. The teams of Quentin Clark, grade 8, and Shah, as well as Jai Bahri, grade 8, and Deven Parikh, grade 7, were semifinalists.
In Lincoln-Douglas debate, the team swept the tournament, claiming all of the top seven spots with the following students being named co-champions: Shah, Akshay Manglik, grade 7, Tadimeti, Kalsi, Ma, Chegu and Zhao. In public forum Reddy and Mukhija were octofinalists and the teams of Liou and Ding as well as Cheung and Pan reached the quarterfinals.
In congressional debate Sun, Bajaj, and Reiya Das, grade 8, all finished in the top eight at the tournament.
The following students reached the final round of speech competition: Aaditya Gulati, grade 6; Shyl Lamba, grade 8; Annamma Vazhaeparambil, grade 7; Wang and Chen. Patil won the oratory competition while Avi Gulati finished first overall in impromptu speaking and storytelling and Solanki was named tournament champion in both prose and dramatic interpretation.
Karina Momary, head coach of the Harker middle school team, credits the success of the program to the work of the students. “This group of students has certainly worked hard individually, but more importantly has worked collectively as a team to support each other. Our success this year is a direct result of our students working with and for each other,” she said. The middle school team next heads to the National Junior Forensics League National Championship Tournament in Salt Lake City in mid-June.
Welcoming a New Coach
In fall, Marjorie Hazeltine will transition from the middle school to the upper school to become the head coach of the Harker speech and congressional debate teams. Hazeltine had previously worked with the Harker middle school team, in addition to teaching English classes. She joins returning upper school coaches Jenny Alme and Greg Achten. Department chair Alme noted, “The upper school students and coaches are thrilled to have Ms. Hazeltine join us. She is very talented and has a great track record of success as a coach.”
More than 664 rounds of debate occurred during the Howard and Diana Nichols Invitational speech and debate tournament, held Oct. 1-2. The event was attended by more than 20 schools, who took part in policy, Lincoln-Douglas and public forum debate contests. On hand to help with the tournament were more than 50 Harker student volunteers, who assisted competitors with finding rooms, helped the event run on time and made sure the upper school campus was kept clean. Speech and debate chair Jenny Alme reported that the visiting students were appreciative of the food provided by Harker’s kitchen staff.
Karina Momary, middle school debate coach, had a nice surprise in her snail mail box one morning in mid-September: a letter from the White House! She received a missive from President Barack Obama acknowledging the middle school debate team’s success this past year. In addition to the letter, the envelope also contained photos of the First Family. This acknowledgement came after the middle school debate team was named an Overall School of Excellence by the National Speech & Debate Association, an award given to just three schools nationwide. This is the fourth time in a row the MS team has received this award! Read more about both upper and middle school debate triumphs this summer at Harker News! https://staging.news.harker.org/?p=26731
It’s been a fabulous past few months for Harker’s speech and debate teams! Although the bulk of the speech and debate tournament season runs from September through March, many students qualify for end-of-year national championship tournaments in May and June. Both the middle and upper school teams were very successful at these tournaments.
Top School Honors
In May, the upper school team was recognized by the Tournament of Champions (TOC) as a School of Excellence. This award, sponsored by the National Speech & Debate Association, is given to the team with the most success in all TOC events. The TOC is one of the most challenging tournaments upper school students compete in, so this was one of the biggest accomplishments of the entire season. Harker reached this remarkable achievement by advancing to elimination rounds in all four debate events: Lincoln-Doulas, policy, public forum and congressional. Most schools are thrilled to have students advance in a single event; Harker was the only school to have students advance in more than two. Coaches Greg Achten, Carol Green and Jenny Alme shared in celebrating this special award.
Similarly, in June, the middle school team set a record by winning the Overall School of Excellence Award for the fourth time! The award, given by the National Speech & Debate Association, is presented to the top three teams in the country. It is the highest honor a middle school program can achieve. Karina Momary, middle school coach, said she is incredibly proud of all of her competitors.
These awards reflect the hard work and success of individual Harker students and also the overall strength of the program.
Outstanding Individual Achievements and Service
Many students also experienced great success in individual events. At the National Speech & Debate Association National Tournament in Dallas in June, Madhu Nori ’15 reached the quarterfinals in original oratory, finishing among the top 28 orators in the nation. At the same tournament, Nikhil Kishore ’15 and David Lin ’15 finished in the top 30 teams in the nation in public forum debate.
At the middle school Speech & Debate Association National Tournament, also in Dallas, many Harker students earned top honors and awards. In declamation, Nikki Solanki, now grade 8, and Arusha Patil, now grade 7, were both quarterfinalists. In dramatic interpretation, Riya Gupta, now grade 9, was a quarterfinalist, and Solanki placed sixth in the nation. In impromptu speaking, Nikhil Dharmaraj, now grade 9, finished fourth in the nation. In original oratory, Gupta, Dharmaraj and Avi Gulati, now grade 8, were all semifinalists. In storytelling, Dharmaraj finished third.
The strong showing by the speech team members was matched by the excellent results from the debaters. In policy debate, Jai Bahri, now grade 8, and Julia Biswas, now grade 7, were double octafinalists, as were Andy Lee and Jason Lin, both grade 7. Maddie Huynh, now grade 8, and Anusha Kuppahally, now grade 9, were semifinalists. In Lincoln-Douglas debate Annie Ma, now grade 8, was a double octafinalist. In public forum, Cindy Wang, now grade 9, and Clarissa Wang, now grade 9, were quarterfinalists. In Congressional Debate, Jason Huang, now grade 9, was a finalist.
These strong efforts were significantly aided by the coaching assistance of recent Harker alumni and current upper school students. Ayush Midha ’15, Pranav Sharma ’15 and Zarek Drozda, now grade 12 gave up two weeks of their summer to help the middle school team prepare for the tournament. They assisted students during a weeklong work session then traveled to Dallas with the team to help coach the students during the event. Nitya Mani ’15 also helped out during the work week.
Momary and speech coach Marjorie Hazeltine worked tirelessly to prepare the students for competition, supervise the students and assistant coaches, and coordinate this highly successful trip.
Ongoing study
After the conclusion of the season, rather than taking a break from speech and debate, many of our middle and upper school students spent the summer preparing for the coming season at speech and debate camps across the nation. Students attended camps, ranging from one to seven weeks, at Georgetown University, UC Berkeley, Stanford University, Michigan State University and the University of Michigan, to name just a few. Also many Harker students attended the summer speech and debate camp hosted by Harker.
During summer debate camps, students study the theory and practice of debate, learning from instructors from prestigious college and high school debate programs around the nation. In addition to valuable speech and debate experience, students also get to experience college first hand, often living in dormitories, studying in college classrooms and getting a taste of what college life is like.
“Debate camp is one of the most intellectually enriching experiences a student can undertake,” said Alme, Harker debate chair. “I have seen thousands of students grow as debaters, researchers, independent thinkers and responsible global citizens. Because the nature of debate camp allows for students to immerse themselves in the study and practice of competition, there really is no substitute for attending camp.”
Though the camp schedule is rigorous, often involving long days and weekend work, the students are also able to learn more about the college campuses they visit and occasionally have great cultural experiences. For instance, several Harker students at the Georgetown Debate Institute were taken by camp faculty to the U.S. Supreme Court for the announcement of the historic gay marriage decision Obergefell vs. Hodges. The students were at the court for the reading of the decision and got to go inside the chambers. Debate camp allowed these students to be there for a truly historical event and it is an experience those students will likely never forget.
New Faces
At the end of the 2014-15 school year, Carol Green stepped down as communication studies department chair to take a position teaching history at Harker. Alme was named department chair and Sandra Berkowitz was brought in to coach the public forum and congressional debate team. Berkowitz has extensive experience coaching debate at the high school level and also has taught at the collegiate level at the University of Maine and most recently at Minnesota State Community and Technical College. With her wealth of teaching and coaching experience, along with the return of Alme, Momary and Achten, the team is in great hands and looks forward to another successful season.