Speech and debate members excel, qualify for Grand National Tournament

As the calendar turned to a new year, members of the speech and debate team have continued to participate in tournaments both near and far.

Several speech and debate team members excelled at the Coast Forensic League Speech 3 tournament held at Milpitas High on Jan. 21.

Junior Ruchi Maheshwari broke to Open National Extemporaneous finals and sophomore Connie Liang took second in Open Original Oratory.

“It felt like all the time I spent practicing and rehearsing paid off,” Liang said. “It was also motivating because it gave me a confidence boost.”

There were three preliminary rounds, and the top speakers advanced to finals. Finals consisted of three rooms for each event and seven people in each room.

Other local high schools, including Leland, Bellarmine College Preparatory, Archbishop Mitty and Mission San Jose, were present at the tournament, making it a competitive one. Senior speech captain Divya Rallabandi said that Saratoga competes in the CFL league, which is one of the toughest not only in California but in the U.S.

Unlike most students who choose common topics such as taking risks, sports and feminism, Liang spent months searching for and researching an uncommon societal issue that she believes affects numerous individuals.

Liang’s speech was about how society has a negative stigma around giving up, when, in reality, individuals can benefit from learning that recognizing one’s limits is sometimes just as important as persevering.

In other action, several debaters qualified for the Grand National Tournament at the NCFL qualifiers tournament in Sacramento on Jan. 20-21. The public forum teams seniors of Ayush Aggarwal and Arun Ramakrishna and seniors Karthik Ramachandran and Sathvik Koneru qualified in the event. Arian Raje qualified in national extemp. The national tournament will take place in Washington, D.C., on May 26-27.

“Speech and debate is an activity where true success is only paralleled with hard work and the right attitude and experience,” Rallabandi said. “It’s this passion and fervor for learning and expanding on what has been taught that is helping our team reach success.