Photo Courtesy Of CCHS Debate Team
BY SARAH SHARPE
CCHS’s Speech and Debate Team boarded a plane to Princeton, New Jersey on Thursday, December 5th to compete in the Princeton Classic Debate Tournament at Princeton University.
Ten CCHS students competed on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday against debaters from across the nation. Sophomore Zoe Shir, junior David Deacon, and seniors Alec Fichtel, Hayed Kure, and Christine Samuel competed in Lincoln Douglas Debate. Sophomore Juel Johnson and senior Josh Andron competed in Congressional Debate. Juniors Ashley Sarmiento and Sarah Sharpe competed in Humorous Interpretation and sophomore Ariana Milian and Sharpe competed in Oral Interpretation.
“I was really, really nervous at first,” Milian said. “I was shaking and when I went up to speak, I just tried the best that I could. I realized that it was in the hands of the judges after I perform.”
Lincoln Douglas Debate centers on a proposition of value, which concerns itself with what ought to be instead of what is. One debater upholds each side of the resolution from a value perspective. Congressional Debate models the legislative process of democracy, specifically, the United States Congress. Judges evaluate debaters on their research and analysis of issues, argumentation, and skill in asking and answering questions, use of parliamentary procedure, and clarity and fluency of speaking.
Humorous Interpretation is a speech event in which the debater must perform a 10-minute, memorized selection from a novel, short story, play, or any other published material. The piece must be humorous in nature. Oral Interpretation is another speech event in which the debater must prepare 10-minute selections from both a prose piece and poetry pieces. The debater reads from a binder and must act as the character in the selections.
On Saturday night, Milian and Sharpe found out they both broke to the semi-final round of Oral Interpretation, competing against the top 12, and Sharpe broke to final round of Humorous Interpretation, competing against the top 8.
At the awards ceremony on Sunday afternoon, Milian and Sharpe received plaques for making it to the Oral Interpretation semi-final round and Sharpe received a trophy for placing 6th in Humorous Interpretation.
“When I got my plaque, I was so surprised,” Milian said. “It was kind of an a-ha moment for me. I didn’t expect to get that far, but I did and I was so thrilled.”
