![“[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)
Upper school debaters travel to Des Moines for Valley Mid America Cup
Courtesy of Jenny Achten
Harker debaters competing at the Valley Mid America Cup pose for a photo outside with former Harker Lincoln-Douglas debater Emmiee Malyugina (’17) and former Harker policy debater Molly Wancewicz (’17). A total of 10 Harker debaters attended the tournament.
September 26, 2017
Ten upper school debaters traveled to Des Moines, Iowa this past weekend to attend the Valley Mid America Cup for the team’s third debate tournament of the year.
Dozens of schools from across the United States competed in this event. There, Quentin Clark (10) and Sachin Shah (10) were named 49th and 60th speaker, respectively, out of 97 participants in Lincoln-Douglas debate. Maddie Huynh (10), Andy Lee (9), Akshay Manglik (9) and Deven Parikh (9) were named 11th, 19th, 69th and 88th speaker, respectively, out of 131 participants in policy debate. Cindy Wang (11), Clarissa Wang (11), Annie Ma (10) and Amanda Cheung (10) were named 24th, 54th, 65th and and 69th speaker, respectively, out of 90 participants in public forum debate.
Policy team Maddie and Andy advanced to the double octofinals of the competition. Andy thought the tournament was enjoyable as one of his first high school competitions and was satisfied with his performance at the invitational.
“The tournament was pretty fun,” he said. “We won four out of six in the preliminary rounds, and then we lost our first elimination round.”
Public forum team Cindy and Clarissa ended their tournament run with four wins, advancing to the octofinals, while team Annie and Amanda ended with three. There were 45 public forum teams in the competition.
This tournament marked the first time Annie competed as a public forum debater, and she found the invitational a great experience to learn new debate techniques and to have fun in general.
“I competed in public forum for the first time at this tournament after four years of competing in Lincoln-Douglas, so it was really interesting to learn about this new way to debate,” she said. “We met new people, played a lot of cards and saw a lot of corn fields.”
The students were chaperoned by upper school debate coaches Greg Achten and Jenny Achten. Ms. Achten expressed her thoughts on the team’s performance this year so far and spoke about the team’s upcoming trip to southern California for their next tournament.
“We were really impressed; we had several ninth and 10th graders set personal best records at a national varsity competition,” she said. “We also had great results at the St. Francis tournament and at the Grapevine tournament, and this weekend the speech and Congress team is having their start at the Long Beach tournament.”
The speech and debate team’s next tournament will be held this weekend in Long Beach, California for students competing in speech events and Congressional debate.
