Although she approaches each debate round differently, Kelly Shen (12) maintains the same basic routine before her competitions: discussing her strategy with her coaches, concentrating on the most important part of her upcoming round and staying focused while walking into her round. After participating in speech during middle school, Kelly joined debate in freshman year, and she has competed in Lincoln Douglas since then.

“I love just saying things that I like to say and researching issues that I’m passionate about and taking those in round to where I can talk about them with my opponent,” she said. “Even if I lose the debate, the fact that a discussion, a meaningful conversation has taken place in that round is something that’s important.”

Kelly considers debate to be one of her primary forms of expression, but she also turns to languages such as French, which she studies in school, and Chinese, which her parents have taught her from a young age, as another outlet for expression.

“My parents have really instilled the idea that language and heritage is really important,” she said. “I find that being able to express your ideas using different languages and having access to learning different languages is really important.”

In order to share her experiences with language and give back to her community, Kelly spent two weeks over the summer teaching English to children in Dujiangyan, a city in China. In the aftermath of an earthquake, she hoped to help the underprivileged minorities in China, and she found that this was the best way to do so. Through teaching, she encountered people from a variety of different backgrounds, including a ten-year-old who had to work at her parents’ restaurant.

“That was something that was really eye-opening and definitely a formative experience for me because [of] simply interacting with those children and hearing about their lives,” Kelly said. “ Meeting those people, getting to know them, befriending them, and then hearing about their everyday experiences was something that impacted me a lot.”

While in China, Kelly made an effort to connect with both her students and her fellow teachers. After a few days of classes, the students took her and the other teachers to their snack bar to purchase instant ramen instead of eating lunch in their cafeteria, before sneaking through the bushes back into their classroom to finish their noodles together. Despite their age difference, Kelly enjoyed sharing the experience and establishing a stronger connection with them.

“That was something that made me very proud because it sort of showed me that we had cultivated that important relationship and that they saw us not just as teachers, but also people and friends,” she said.

Every day for two weeks, Kelly and the other instructors taught young children English for six hours, then planned out their lessons for the next day. Standing in front of a blackboard all day brought aching feet and exhaustion, but despite how tiring each day could be, Kelly maintained an optimistic approach to her situation, which is a trait she has carried over to both cheerleading and academics back in school.

“When I came to Harker, I joined cheer, and she was one of the first people that I met, and she really introduced me to a lot of people and she was just really nice and she wanted to make sure that I could get well adapted to Harker,” Stephanie Xiao (12), one of Kelly’s close friends and teammates, said.

Kelly’s trip to China was inspired by her interest in modern issues such as poverty and other inequalities, which stemmed from her involvement in debate.

Her debate coach, Greg Achten, who has had her as a student for the past four years, noted both her positivity and leadership skills.

“She’s always cheerful; she’s always supportive of other people,” he said. “She’s very outspoken; she’s for sure one of the top leaders on the team. There’s just no question about that. She’s someone who is involved in a lot of things, but she still finds time for her teammates.”

Although her interest first began with debate, her AP Economics class during junior year and her Honors Modern International Affairs class this year helped bring more local issues to her attention. Damon Halback, who teaches both classes, observed her attention to detail.

“She picks up nuance, so when she’s listening to someone, she’s able to really understand what they’re saying and understand their motives and problems in a way that’s really unique,” he said. “She seems to be very selfless, meaning she’s always willing to promote the interests of others and very humble about the way she is.”

Through the lessons she learned in debate and AP Economics, Kelly gained a greater understanding of current affairs and hopes to raise awareness and someday resolve them, which she aspires to accomplish through methods such as policy change.

“This sounds pretty idealistic, coming up with solutions to structural inequalities that have been here for literally hundreds of years, but I think it’s important that we work toward trying to find nuanced, intricate solutions that can actually work to resolve these issues,” Kelly said.