Members of Harker’s speech and debate teams competed in several tournaments over Thanksgiving Break, including the Glenbrooks Speech and Debate Tournament in Chicago, Illinois and the Santa Clara University Dempsey Cronin Invitational Tournament.

The Glenbrooks Speech and Debate Tournament took place on Saturday Nov. 19 to Wednesday Nov. 23. It is the largest invitational for speech and debate events held by a high school, and students could compete in fourteen different events.

“[There are] very limited spots, and the best teams come from all over [the country],” Sejal Krishnan (9), a policy debater, said.

Harker students boarded a plane last Friday and spent the weekend competing in Chicago.  

In the policy debate event, for each round of competition, with seven rounds total, two ballots were available. Students who received the most out of fourteen ballots ‘broke’, or continued on, to the next round.

Alan Hughes (11) and Megan Huynh (11) both broke to double octofinals in varsity policy debate at the Glenbrooks tournament and lost in the elimination round before octofinals. Avi Gulati (9) broke to semifinals in Congressional Debate. There were 170 entries in their category.

Three speech students represented Harker’s Upper School at Glenbrooks in the Original Oratory event: sophomores Wynter Chaverst, Nikhil Dharmaraj, and Jay Menon. This event requires students to deliver an original speech, persuasive or informative, regarding a topic they are interested in and have researched.

Nikhil made it to the semifinals in Original Oratory and placed ninth out of 130 participants with his piece titled “The Power of Small.”

“I wrote about how American culture is obsessed with the idea of ‘big’. I felt personally connected to that, because I’m a small person,” Nikhil, who has participated in Original Oratory events at several competitions previously, said. “I talked about how we undervalue small things and small people.”

For some debaters and speakers, these tournaments were an introductory experience for them to grow as speakers.

“I learned what to not say in a speech at a given time. I said something at the wrong time, so I helped an opponent out. I [also] learned how to organize my arguments,” Allison Lee (9), a new member of Harker’s speech and debate team, said.

Other students, like freshman Nikki Solanki, who have been competing for several years were able to hone their skills at these tournaments. Nikki has been a competitive speech and debater since middle school, and was the only high schooler representing Harker in speech events at the Santa Clara University Dempsey-Cronin Invitational.

“It was a pretty big tournament, [and] … it was pretty hard competition,” Nikki said. She finished fourth in Thematic Interpretation and eighth in Dramatic Interpretation at the Santa Clara University tournament.

The Dempsey-Cronin Invitational was named in honor of the late Reverend James Dempsey, co-founder of the Northern California Forensic Association, and Coach Marty Cronin, a former high school and college debate coach. Both were influential individuals to Santa Clara University’s forensics programs.

The tournament offered bids to students for the University of Kentucky’s Tournament of the Champions at the end of the year.

The team will next attend is Alta High School tournament which begins this week and continues until Saturday, Dec. 3.