By Isha Trivedi '19

Recently, eight of Notre Dame's speech and debate students kicked off the new year with a debate tournament at Milpitas High School called the Stephen Stewart Invitational. This is the second consecutive year that this tournament has taken place, and it featured students from schools all around the Bay Area. The tournament offers about 20 events and Notre Dame students had the opportunity to participate, and place, in several. 

Sophomores, juniors and seniors on Notre Dame's Speech & Debate Team participated in events ranging from Original Advocacy to Oratorical Interpretation, and many of these students won a variety of awards. Sapna Ramappa '18 and Alekhya Gurram '19 both won 1st place in their events (Impromptu and Original Advocacy, respectively), and Divya Nair '20 earned 5th place in Original Oratory. Arushi Bansal '20 made it to semifinals in Original Oratory, and won three out of five rounds in Lincoln-Douglas debate. She was ranked 19th in this event and just missed going to the elimination round by a few places. Daenerys Pineda '18 finished the event in 1st place in Parliamentary Debate, 2nd in Domestic Extemporaneous!

To all the students who participated and worked hard for this tournament, congratulations for these wins and good luck on future competitions!