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![“When I came into high school, I was ready to be a follower. But DECA was a game changer for me. It helped me overcome my fear of public speaking, and it's played such a major role in who I've become today. To be able to successfully lead a chapter of 150 students, an officer team and be one of the upperclassmen I once really admired is something I'm [really] proud of,” Anvitha Tummala ('21) said.](https://harkeraquila.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/Screen-Shot-2021-07-25-at-9.50.05-AM-900x594.png)
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![“[Volleyball has] taught me how to fall correctly, and another thing it taught is that you don’t have to be the best at something to be good at it. If you just hit the ball in a smart way, then it still scores points and you’re good at it. You could be a background player and still make a much bigger impact on the team than you would think,” Anya Gert (’20) said.](https://harkeraquila.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/AnnaGert_JinTuan_HoHPhotoEdited-600x900.jpeg)
![“I'm not nearly there yet, but [my confidence has] definitely been getting better since I was pretty shy and timid coming into Harker my freshman year. I know that there's a lot of people that are really confident in what they do, and I really admire them. Everyone's so driven and that has really pushed me to kind of try to find my own place in high school and be more confident,” Alyssa Huang (’20) said.](https://harkeraquila.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/AlyssaHuang_EmilyChen_HoHPhoto-900x749.jpeg)
Senior Pranav Reddy crowned national champion of Lincoln Douglas debate
Courtesy of Pranav Reddy
Senior Pranav Reddy poses with his trophy after being crowned the national champion of Lincoln Douglas debate. This is his second consecutive year of winning this prestigious competition.
Pranav Reddy (12) won the individual championship in Lincoln Douglas Debate at the invitation-only Tournament of Champions (TOC) in Lexington, Kentucky from April 25 to 27, where 18 Harker students competed. The TOC consists of students who rank highly in previous tournaments from throughout the year. These include public forum, congressional debate, Lincoln-Douglas, policy and extemporaneous speaking.
Harker won the overall championship awarded the title of best performing school overall. It was the only school to have a student participating in the elimination round of every category.
The entire debate program has been preparing for this tournament all year, “It was incredibly successful. [preparing was] a lot of hard work, a lot of sessions, after school, during school, and a lot of work throughout the year,” said debate teacher Carol Green.
Pranav has been debating for over five years since he decided to try it out in seventh, and this is his second year attending the TOC. “I joined debate sort of by accident. I was interested in Harker Math Club, but you could only do it one year, so I did debate in seventh and did the math club in eighth grade. I went to debate camp, and I think I just fell in love with it after that” Pranav said.
He prepared by reading numerous cases pertaining to their research.
“We read cases that were specific to repealing and executive order that allows disabled individuals to get paid less that quote on quote normal individuals. he said.
“We also read a case about people in the military getting more money than they currently do. [We] also do a just some general research about important issues”.
This tournament is highly competitive as compared to others throughout the season: “These are the best of the best competing at the TOC, so its really challenging when everyone else has already proven themselves over the course of the year” Pranav said. He also described how he felt during each round of the tournament, “I was incredibly nervous – debate has been the biggest part of my life for the past four years, and more than this being the biggest tournament of my career, it was even more scary that it would be my last no matter what happened” he said.
Pranav also highlighted some of his best moments from the tournament. “For me, I think the turning point was after quarterfinals on Monday. I was debating a rival who I’d debated multiple times throughout the year and I was nervous and a little scared going into the round. I gained confidence with every speech I gave and I think I really hit my stride in the final moments of my last speech” Pranav said.
The senior also shared his feelings about how he felt when he heard his name being called. “I felt an incredible amount of relief. I don’t think the feeling of winning really sunk in for hours, or honestly until we got home the next day. After the relief, I actually felt pretty sad – I remember taking notes on what the judges were saying and then realizing that there was no point because I’d never need them again and there would never be a chance for me to debate again. It’s odd – I couldn’t be happier (except for some small things) about how my debate career went, but I already miss it and really wish it wasn’t over” he said.
In the future, Pranav plans to debate in college and help coach high school debaters.
Maya Kumar (11) is the Features Editor for the Winged Post. This is her third year in Journalism and her favorite part is collaborating with fellow journalism...
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