![Setter Emma Lee (9) sets the ball to the middle during the match against Pinewood on Sept. 12. “[I’m looking forward to] getting more skilled, learning more about my position and also becoming better friends with all of my teammates, Emma said.](https://harkeraquila.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/DSC_4917-2-1200x795.jpg)
![“[Building nerf blasters] became this outlet of creativity for me that hasnt been matched by anything else. The process [of] making a build complete to your desire is such a painstakingly difficult process, but Ive had to learn from [the skills needed from] soldering to proper painting. Theres so many different options for everything, if you think about it, it exists. The best part is [that] if it doesnt exist, you can build it yourself, Ishaan Parate said.](https://harkeraquila.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/08/DSC_8149-900x604.jpg)
![“Animation just clicked in a way. I had been interested in art, but that felt different. [Animation] felt like it had something behind it, whereas previous things felt surface level. I wasnt making that crazy of things, but just the process of doing it was much more enjoyable, Carter Chadwick (22) said.](https://harkeraquila.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/08/Screen-Shot-2022-08-16-at-9.44.08-AM-900x598.png)
![“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 its played such a major role in who Ive 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 Im [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)
![“[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)
![“Im 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 theres a lot of people that are really confident in what they do, and I really admire them. Everyones 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)
![“My slogan is ‘slow feet, don’t eat, and I’m hungry.’ You need to run fast to get where you are–you arent going to get those championships if you arent 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)
![“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)
Upper school debaters compete at Presentation Invitational
Courtesy of Greg Achten
Public forum team Amanda Cheung (10) and Annie Ma (10) pose with their varsity octofinalist award from the Presentation Invitational. Harker had 15 public forum teams competing in the tournament.
October 10, 2017
The upper school debate team attended the Presentation Invitational from Oct. 6 to 8 at Presentation High School in San Jose.
A total of 49 Harker debaters participated in this tournament, competing in varsity and junior varsity Lincoln-Douglas and public forum debate. Harker had 15 public forum teams and and 20 Lincoln-Douglas debaters in this competition.
In public forum, team Amanda Cheung (10) and Annie Ma (10) advanced to the octofinals while Naveen Mirapuri (10) and Chandan Aggarwal (10) placed as the 44th and 53rd speakers out of 90 debaters, respectively. While no Harker debaters made it to the octofinals in Lincoln-Douglas debate, Kelly Shen (11) and Serena Lu (12) were the 22nd speaker and 39th speaker out of 98 debaters, respectively.
“I thought the tournament went super well; we had a number of students win awards [and] we had a number of students make it to the elimination rounds. All of the students had really awesome debates and had really good experiences,” upper school debate coach Greg Achten said. “Because this is a relatively early tournament in the year, we had a lot of students [for] whom this was their first tournament or one of their first tournaments.”
Formerly known as the Voices Foundation Lincoln Douglas Debate Tournament, money raised from this tournament goes to the Voices Foundation, which provides financial assistance and opportunities for debaters in need.
The Presentation Invitational invited debaters from schools across California, including the Bay Area region and Southern California.
“For me, personally, it was a pretty hard tournament. I’d say it’s one of the hardest I’ve been to,” Aditi Vinod (9), who won two out of six of her Lincoln-Douglas rounds, said. “My first round was competing against someone really good, so that just set me off in a bad way. I learnt quite a bit, [including a] few mistakes that can be fixed easily that lost me rounds.”
Kelly, who won three rounds, found difficulty in finding preparation time in the short breaks between rounds.
“One of the difficulties was that after pairings came out, there was only half an hour before the round started, which meant that there wasn’t a lot of time for coaching,” she said. “I think that our team was a little lacking in preparation for this tournament and that we definitely could have practiced more in general.”
In addition to effective preparations, smart and strategic decision-making is a skill that Aditi feels she can improve on in the future.
“You just have to resist the urge to go for everything, [and] you have to accept the losses in some areas and pick which can win you the round,” Aditi said.
The team’s next tournament is the Heart of Texas Invitational, hosted at St. Mark’s School of Texas in Dallas, from Oct. 13 to 16.
