On the weekend of Sept. 30-Oct. 1, the speech and debate team attended in their first tournament of the year at the Yale Invitational in New Haven, CT. The team INSERT MEMBERS HERE. They competed all day Saturday, with only a few breaks along the way. The tournament was supposed to start at 9 am, but started at 10:30 am due to a weather delay in the form of campus-wide flooding.
Every round went about an hour for speech, with 2-3 hour breaks between every round. During those breaks, the team contemplated what they did well and how the experience was a bit of a shock. For congress, each round was 2.5 hours and the breaks were around 30 minutes long.
Hadassah Broughton ’28 and Micah Davis ’28 competed in oral interpretation, a speech event. Oral interpretation is where you choose a short story and a series of poems, practice reading them with expression and emotion, and present them in the competition. It was Broughton’s first time competing in the prose competition, but Davis helped her along the way. Forty-one people competed in the event and Broughton placed 19th (tied with a 4th place state winner), one point away from making the top 18 who made it to the quarterfinals. This was an amazing showing for the freshman duo’s first tournament at the high school level, highlighting their potential.
Fatima El-Banna ’28 and Lauren Lee ’28 competed in original oratory, which is when you write a speech concerning a specific topic and fully memorize and present that speech. Fatima scored 3rd on the last two rounds of her original speech, which means she was scoring over a ½ better than the other competitors in her room.
Vlada Sokol ’28 and Jusan Williams ’28 competed in the congress event, a mock of the American Congress. Sokol spoke at least twice every round, a commendable performance for her first high school experience. She competed against seniors who asked her stressful questions, but she kept her composure the entire time.
“It was really eye-opening,” Williams said about the experience. “It made me think about how middle school was a lower level…high school is the real deal and everyone is doing this because they are really passionate. It gave me the confidence and encouragement to do better next time.”
The team ended their New Haven trip with a fair. They danced to live music, bought some Yale merch, and then made their way home. The team is proud of their individual performances and they look forward to competing in future tournaments.
