Nikhil Dharmaraj (10) and Avi Gulati (9) will represent the Harker speech and debate team at the upcoming National Speech and Debate Association’s National Tournament following their performances at the recent California Coast District Tournament, which was held at Bellarmine College Preparatory from March 17 to 19.

Both competing in Original Oratory, a speech event in which participants deliver a 10-minute self-written piece about a topic of their choice, Nikhil placed first with his speech “The Power of Small” and Avi second with his speech “Negating the Negativity.”

“I felt pretty prepared because I had just rewritten my speech—Ms. Hazeltine and I had gone through a brief rewriting and delivery process, so it was exciting for me to have this new speech out in the world and to see where it would take me, especially at this important, high-stake tournament,” Nikhil said.

Nikki Solanki (9) also participated in the district tournament, placing as a semifinalist in Dramatic Interpretation, a speech event in which participants deliver a 10-minute excerpt from a play, novel or short story, and finishing fifth in Programmed Oral Interpretation, a speech event in which competitors piece together a 10-minute speech revolving around a central theme using excerpts from multiple genres of literature.  

“Coming into the tournament, I felt extremely prepared because I [had] compiled this piece over the summer last year, and it’s been under constant work and refinery since. However, the competition was really intense and I was surprised as to how much other people had also improved their pieces from the beginning of the year,” she said. “In terms of next year, I am extremely excited to put together my piece, and I already have ideas of what I want to do. Because Program Oral Interpretation is still a relatively new NSDA event, I now have a better idea of how the event works and of the kind of the norm of what every competitor needs to have.”

The California Coast District Tournament is one of the many regional competitions  hopefuls for nationals participate in to fight for a spot on their state’s delegation to the National Speech and Debate Association’s tournament. Depending on district size and competitor turnout, regional competitions can allow anywhere from the top two to the top four finishers in each event to attend the national tournament- in the case of the California Coast District, the top three participants qualify to the National Speech and Debate Association’s event.

“I honestly did not think that we were going to live the dream of having two kids in the top for Oratory. I was really hoping for one of them to break, but to have both of them break and in the top two as well was really awesome and really affirming,” speech coach Marjorie Hazeltine said. “For nationals, I’d like to see them go to at least the quarterfinal round—and the dream is, obviously, all the way—but I’m already so proud of them for making it this far.”

Nikhil and Avi are now preparing or the upcoming national tournament by revising their speeches and practicing their pieces in front of audiences. For Avi, however, his plans for the competition not only involve doing his best, but also having fun.

“I had a concrete goal before, but I think that if I want to do well and make it to elimination rounds, the means to get there is to enjoy the process of communicating my ideas, persuading, convincing and really bringing it into the relatability of my audience,” he said. “More than anything, though, my goal for the tournament is to enjoy my first national competition.”

The National Speech and Debate Association’s National Tournament will be hosted this year from June 18 to 23 in Birmingham, Alabama.

A shorter version of this piece was originally published in the pages of The Winged Post on March 28, 2017.