![“[Building nerf blasters] became this outlet of creativity for me that hasn't been matched by anything else. The process [of] making a build complete to your desire is such a painstakingly difficult process, but I've had to learn from [the skills needed from] soldering to proper painting. There's so many different options for everything, if you think about it, it exists. The best part is [that] if it doesn't exist, you can build it yourself," Ishaan Parate said.](https://harkeraquila.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/08/DSC_8149-900x604.jpg)
![“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)
![“I think getting up in the morning and having a sense of purpose [is exciting]. I think without a certain amount of drive, life is kind of obsolete and mundane, and I think having that every single day is what makes each day unique and kind of makes life exciting,” Neymika Jain (12) said.](https://harkeraquila.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/Screen-Shot-2017-06-03-at-4.54.16-PM.png)
![“My slogan is ‘slow feet, don’t eat, and I’m hungry.’ You need to run fast to get where you are–you aren't going to get those championships if you aren't fast,” Angel Cervantes (12) said. “I want to do well in school on my tests and in track and win championships for my team. I live by that, [and] I can do that anywhere: in the classroom or on the field.”](https://harkeraquila.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/DSC5146-900x601.jpg)
![“[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)
Four teams break at Presentation Public Forum Invitational
Public forum debaters Sorjo Banerjee (12) and Abhinav Ketineni (12) prepare for the first round of the tournament in the practice room. Abhinav’s team advanced to the octofinal round oft he tournament, while Sorjo’s team advanced to the finals.
November 21, 2015
The upper school debate team traveled to Presentation High School in San Jose to compete at the statewide Presentation Public Forum Invitational on Nov. 13 and 14.
16 students from Harker attended the competition. The event had six preliminary rounds, and debaters with a winning record of four wins and two losses advanced to the octofinal rounds.
Seniors Sorjo Banerjee, Eesha Chona, Suraj Jagadeesh, Abhinav Ketineni, Jasmine Liu, Aarti Kheskani and Shivali Minocha, juniors Joyce Huang, Alexander Lam, Emaad Raghib, Priyanka Taneja and Anuva Mittal and sophomores Emily Chen, Karena Kong, Amy Jin and Eric Tran attended the tournament.
Abhinav and Jasmine advanced to the octofinal round of the tournament, Emily and Karena advanced to the quarterfinals, Suraj and Emaad were semifinalists and Sorjo and Eesha were finalists.
“The performance has been great so far; I think both me and my partner have improved,” Eesha said, “We both felt like we were very well prepared. I think for what to improve on, maybe not stressing out about the results because everything works out.”
At debate tournaments, in addition to team rankings, every individual speaker is awarded points by judges in each round for their speaking skills. Sorjo, Suraj and Alexander placed sixth, ninth and tenth, respectively, in speaker points at the tournament.
“I felt that my performance in the tournament was decent and solid overall, but I would say the thing that most Harker teams need to improve on is appealing to the community judges because we’re more oriented to the flow judges,” Alexander said. “Overall, we need to work on appealing to the common person.”
Public forum is a two-person team debate event in which participants research a specific topic in order to argue either the affirmative or the negative position of the resolution. Each team receives 12 minutes of speaking time total, with an additional nine minutes available for crossfire between the teams.
The topic for the month of November is “Resolved: In response to the current crises, governments should prioritize humanitarian needs of refugees over its national interests.”
“I think given the situation with the Syrian refugees as well as the timing of the topic, you have to have an understanding of the Syrian situation,” said Sandra Berkowitz, the Harker public forum debate coach. “Unfortunately, there are many other examples of refugee issues, so I think that you have to be well-versed in Syria, but there are other areas and groups as well.”
While debaters are not competing, they usually revise their cases, hold mock debates with their teammates and rehearse their cases with a wall as their audience. Competitors between rounds can be seen discussing their arguments with their coaches and working to improve them.
“I think that one of the benefits of public forum debate is that the skills that you cultivate are very real-world,” Berkowitz said. “It is designed for you to be able to communicate with various audiences, various community members.”
The team will travel to Glenbrooks High School in Chicago, Illinois, to compete at The Glenbrooks from Nov. 20 to 23.
This piece was originally published in the pages of The Winged Post on November 20, 2015.
