![“[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)
Public forum and Congressional debaters win awards at competition in Arizona
Courtesy of Karina Momary
Rishab Gargeya (11) and Misha Tseitlin (11) prepare for their next Congress round with their coach. Rishab was a semifinalist and Misha was a finalist, both competing in a field of 139 Congressional debaters.
January 15, 2016
Six Public Forum teams and two Congressional debaters from the upper school forensics program traveled to Tempe, Arizona, to compete at the Southwest Championship at Arizona State, a speech and debate competition, last weekend.
Eighty-five schools from 11 states sent high school speakers and debaters to the Southwest Championship, hosted annually by Arizona State University. The tournament offered ten speech events and Lincoln-Douglas, Congressional, Policy and Public Forum debate.
Seniors David Jin, Aumesh Misra, Suraj Jagadeesh, Abhinav Ketineni and Jasmine Liu; juniors Joyce Huang, Alexander Lam and Emaad Raghib; sophomore Jacqueline He and freshmen Cindy Wang and Clarissa Wang competed in Public Forum, while juniors Misha Tseitlin and Rishab Gargeya competed in Congressional debate.
Joyce and Alexander were tournament champions in Public Forum with an overall record of 11 wins and one loss.
“We were a little behind on prep this time but in the last two days, we collaborated with a lot of people discussing arguments and writing cases, which really helped with my success at the tournament,” Joyce said.
Suraj and Emaad were quarterfinalists, ending their run at the tournament with nine wins and one loss. Abhinav and Jasmine were double-octafinalists, finishing with a record of five wins and three losses, while team David and Aumesh and team Cindy and Clarissa were triple-octafinalists, ending with records of five wins, two losses and four wins, three losses, respectively.
“I look forward to improving how I present myself as well as the content of my speeches,” Cindy said. “The Stanford tournament is another opportunity to practice and build my skills; as we’ve done a lot more research since ASU, we’re looking forward to the debates.”
Misha and Rishab were Congressional debate finalists and semifinalists, competing in a field of 139 Congressional debaters.
Middle school debate coach Karina Momary and upper school assistant debate coaches Kelly Bentdahl and Kyle Chong traveled with the team to Arizona.
“Anytime there are more teams, it adds a level of competition because for the elimination rounds, you need to have a certain record to advance; there were a lot of teams that had a winning record just because of the sheer size of the pool,” Momary said. “In order for Alex and Joyce to win the tournament, they had to debate from triple-octofinals to finals; at smaller tournaments, maybe octofinals to finals.”
Upper school debate coach Sandy Berkowitz was pleased with the turnout of the competition.
“You can never go into a tournament and say, ‘Oh, we’re going to win the tournament’ or ‘We’re going to break x number of teams.’ But to have the number of teams clear that we had given the strength of the field is impressive, in both Congress and Public Forum,” Berkowitz said.
The upper school speech and debate team’s Lincoln-Douglas and Policy debaters will travel to Harvard-Westlake School in Los Angeles to compete at the Harvard-Westlake Debate this weekend. Upper school speakers, Public Forum and Congressional debaters will travel to James Logan High School in Union City to compete at the Martin Luther King Jr. Invitational this weekend.
Final team standings can be found here.
