NCS Shines in Debate Competitions

12/1/2010

The NCS Debate Club was started by Parisa Sadeghi ’12 and Christianne Molina '12 in 2008-2009, when they were freshman; the club began participating in area tournaments the following year. Now in its third year, club members are making their mark in DC-area debate competitions held by the Washington-Arlington Catholic Forensic League (WACFL), an organization of public, private, and parochial high schools.

At the year’s first WACFL Policy tournament, held at Battlefield High School in Virginia on Oct. 23:

• The sister team of Parisa Sadeghi ’12 and Nakisa Sadeghi ’13 were undefeated in the varsity division and came in first out of all of the teams, winning the tournament.

• Jina Shin ’13 and Satowa Kinoshita ‘13 were undefeated in the novice division and came in second out of all of the 17 novice teams.

• Nakisa Sadeghi ’13 was judged the top speaker at the entire tournament.

All the tournament teams debated the same proposition, “Resolved: The United States federal government should substantially reduce its military and/or police presence in one or more of the following: South Korea, Japan, Afghanistan, Kuwait, Iraq, Turkey.” This topic will remain the same for all Policy tournaments this year.

There is a second kind of tournament, the “Public Forum,” where the topic changes from month to month. At the second WACFL Public Forum tournament, held at King George High School in Virginia on Nov. 20, the topic was “Resolved: High school Public Forum Debate resolutions should not confront sensitive religious issues. “ NCS made a strong showing there as well:

• Chelsea Fine ’12 and Ellie Durling ’13 were undefeated in the junior varsity division and came in second out of 30 teams.

• Sasha Bryski ’13 and Devon Hays ’13 were undefeated in the novice division and came in first out of 37 teams, winning the novice tournament.

• Ashley Mehra ’14 and Sarah Manhardt ’13 won three out of four debates and came in seventh out of all of the teams in the novice division.

• Valerie Salcido ’13 and Satowa Kinoshita ’13 had the top six highest speaker points in the junior varsity division.

• Nakisa Sadeghi ’13 and Natasha Turkmani ’14 came in fourth out of all of the teams in the junior varsity division.

What do students gain by participating in the Debate Club? “Extremely good research skills,” says Parisa, who is Club president. “You have to learn everything about a topic. And, of course, you gain invaluable skills in public speaking.” According to Parisa, a lot of famous people were high school debaters, including Oprah and Supreme Court justices.

The NCS team develops and tests its arguments with each other. “We help each other,” says Parisa, “And that’s what I think is very special about the NCS club.” Assistant Librarian Laurel Lennon is the club's sponsor.

Looking ahead, the Debate Club will most likely take part in a WACFL tournament in February. In March, the “Metrofinals” will be held, and several NCS teams have already qualified to take part. Should any NCS team be one of the top six teams in Metrofinals, they will be eligible to go on to the national competition, being held in Washington, DC over Memorial Day weekend.

Debate Club members who have participated in tournaments to date this year include:

Chelsea Fine ‘12

Parisa Sadeghi ‘12

Sasha Bryski ‘13

Elizabeth “Ellie” Durling ‘13

Devon Hays ‘13

Satowa Kinoshita ‘13

Sarah Manhardt ‘13

Nakisa Sadeghi ‘13

Valerie Salcido ‘13

Jina Shin ‘13

Ashley Mehra ‘14