The Debate Team perseveres through challenging Covid restrictions!
Due to the COVID-19 outbreak, many activities at GA had to be restricted and some had to be temporarily shut down. However, many were still able to persevere and find ways to operate and compete. One of the activities that is able to continue, despite the pandemic, is the Debate Team. Even with many COVID restrictions, the Debate Team has found new ways to hold competitions, training, and practice competitions.
Although there are many members, the Debate Team has been able to meet in its full form. For training, during flex time, the Debate Team has been utilizing the library, BCI, and other classrooms to split up into its various sections, such as speech, public forum, Lincoln-Douglas, and others, all the while keeping its members safe. During this time, the Debate Team discusses how to improve from past competitions and prepare for upcoming ones.
The Debate Team was also able to hold a practice competition at GA and compete against their teammates. This mock debate was the first competition for many of the participants. Debaters gained experience and also had lots of fun competing against their friends and teammates.
There have only been two competitions so far this year due to COVID-19. The first debate competition for the Public Forum team was held virtually after school on December 9, and the topic was on regulating cryptocurrency. The team struggled as there were many new members, resulting with 3 wins and 12 losses. But the best way to learn is through failure, as the Debate Team is sure to improve and learn from their mistakes. The students, in their respective pairs, scattered among the library, BCI, makerspace, and various upper school classrooms for the competition. Despite having to sit in front of a screen for an extended amount of time, the debate team brought their all to the competition. Dr. Vanderstar, the faculty advisor of the Debate Team, says “the Public Forum team numbers 25-30 students and is still attracting members. The December competition yielded wins for novice teams of two: Eileen Wang and Misimi Owolabi, Utsav Mittal and Aiden Swartz, and Larry Zhan and Yash Khandanuru.”
This year, the Public Forum team is being led by two student leaders, Serena Bagga ‘23 and Raina Bandekar ‘23, who have had lots of experience with debates prior to the current season. Raina commented, “We had some great wins against a lot of competitive teams.” When talking about the difficulty of preparation this season, she said, “it was really difficult to prepare especially since we didn’t have that much time. Personally, I think one of our biggest team highlights was the transition from the in-house competition to the real one.” There were many new debaters who joined the team this year, one of whom being Utsav Mittal ‘25. Mittal, as a novice debater, said that the competition was “very fun, a great learning experience and intro to debate as a whole.” Yash Kandanaru ‘25, another novice debater, said, “I had a good first debate, but I have a lot more to improve on and achieve.”
Recently, the Debate Team has just had a second competition about the legalization of illicit drugs. There were many improvements with many of the debaters getting more wins. Currently, the team is preparing for some invitational competitions. By being flexible and resilient, the Debate Team has been able to persevere and provide an authentic experience as much as possible.
Thus far, the Debate Team has shown impressive success for many freshman novices. There are upcoming invitational competitions from colleges such as UPenn and Princeton, with a new topic on whether Turkey should join NATO. Overall, the debate team is off to a great start to their season and hopes to win many more competitions.