04
NEWS
arcadiaquill.com
MARCH 2022
SPEECH STATE QUALS TOURNAMENT
By SOPHIA LI
Staff Writer The Arcadia Speech and Debate competition team recently competed in their first of two State Qualifier Tournaments. Competitors in these two tournaments are all vying for a spot to compete in the State Championship Tournament, held on Apr. 30 in Culver City, California. The first tournament was a two-day tournament on Feb. 25 and Feb. 26. Overall, the competition was a success, as Arcadia placed 2nd overall and gave their longtime competitor, Gabrielino High School, a run for their money. The Arcadia High School Speech and Debate Team is a part of the Southern California Debate League (SCDL), with their head coach, Ms. Ashley Novak being the S C D L president. On the first day, Arcadia competed at Arroyo High School in the events of Lincoln Douglas (LD) and Policy. The following day, on Feb. 26, competitors competed at Montebello High School for all speech events. In each event, only the very top performances advance to state, as the competition is very tough. However, several Arcadia students were able to achieve this task. Let’s congratulate those who moved on to qualify for state! In US Extemp, Evelyn Tsoi placed 5th place. For Original Prose and Poetry, Arcadia had Swarit Srivastava in 7th, Amanda Le in 6th, and Oishika Chattopadhyay in 4th place. In Original Oratory, Rebecca Tao placed 4th,
and Rachel Wang came away with 1st in Original Advocacy. As for Oratorical Interpretation, Arcadia had Zachary Sakti in 6th, Yana Verma in 3rd, Minnoli Shukla in 2nd, and Rachel Wang in 1st. In the event of Expository, Michelle Fan placed 2nd and Anvitha Marlapati received 3rd place. Then, in Impromptu, Tao was 7th, Chattopadhyay in 5th, Verma in 3rd, and Michelle Fan won 1st. There was only one representative for Humorous Interpretation (HI), and Andy Li won 1st. In the event of Dramatic Interpretation, Arcadia had a 1-2 sweep with Kaylee Wong in 1st and Sarah Chao in 2nd. Lastly, in Lincoln Douglas Debate (also known as L.D.), Arcadia had Ariana Hernandez representing, placing 6th. “It felt really cool to represent Arcadia and take first place in HI. The community and people are Arcadia, especially the Speech and Debate Team, is really fun. We have a lot of great freshmen, sophomores, and JV people who are going to take care of Arcadia next year, so it’s really exciting to be able to compete with them and compete alongside them. Overall, the experience of the competition was pretty fun, and I love the food place that we usually get every single time we go there. I particularly like HI because I like making people laugh, as it’s been a part of who I am for the past 5 years, and I’ve always enjoyed doing the event,” senior Andy Li said. Sophomore Euan Kelsey Laru-An was another competitor at the state quals tourna-
ment but unfortunately wasn’t able to break and qualify for state. However, he has some insight into his experience and how he will come back stronger next year! “This is my second time competing at State Quals, but my first time competing at it in person, and my experience this year was certainly lively! Although the tournament was a competition, State Quals also felt like a celebration, because it was really nice seeing people appreciate everyone’s hard work throughout the year on their respective events. I competed in Oratorical Interpretation (OI), and it’s basically where you re-perform an already given speech with your own interpretation of the piece, so the performances can be very creative! Overall, I feel like everyone on the team did a good job this year, seeing that we did really really well, winning second in sweepstakes for Division 1. I personally can’t wait for next year’s State Qualifiers for speech!” Laru-An said. Freshman Ellie Gladson-Pang was also one of the competitors who was still getting the jist of competing, and was able to watch the speeches and debates given by her fellow competitors! Even though GladsonPang didn’t compete, it was refreshing to be able to see her competitors and see specific skills and techniques that she can improve on. She is trying out Congress, a form of debate, and hopes that she can qualify next year! However, it is all thanks to the support from parents and volunteers that the tourna-
ment was able to run smoothly. In Speech and Debate competitions, many volunteers devote their time and effort to be trained as a judge, to be able to judge events other than the one their child is competing in. Without volunteer judges, the process for selecting a winner would become very complicated! This past weekend, Yilin Ma, the mother of Li, who won 1st in HI, was one of the many parent volunteers. Ma judged in speech events like Informative Speaking, International Extemporaneous Speaking, US Extemp, and Oratorical Interpretation. “Ever since Andy started competing in speech and debate competitions, I’ve dedicated myself to support him and his team through judging for competitions. I have been actively serving as a judge for local and online high school speech and debate tournaments, and I really enjoy doing it, as I get to expose myself to different ideas and views,” Ma said. Overall, in this first tournament, Arcadia had a total of 15 students advancing to the state competition, but that number is expected to increase. On Mar. 5, there is a debate tournament that allows for students to qualify for state, at Schurr High School in Montebello, California. The events include public forum, Parli, and/or Congress events. Congratulations to the Speech and Debate team for an outstanding performance!
teachers was super crazy. Overall, it was a super exciting event,” said Link Crew member junior Dakota Lee. Because of the unfortunate situation we all have been put in for the past two years, this event wasn’t able to happen in the last years due to safety concerns. As we return to normalcy, this prompted the revival of the event once again. “The Pi day event has been a big Link Crew tradition for years. I guess it’s been able to live on because of how much everyone enjoys it, students and staff alike. The whole concept of the event really embodies the fun, energetic high school atmosphere that so many people look forward to, and Link Crew really takes pride in the ability to bring that to life at AHS,” said Link Crew member Anabelle El Khoury. Though, a lot of the time we don’t understand the amount of effort that goes into planning these occasions and the process it takes to get the event actually going. “To plan this event, it took about a month
ago to make sure everything went smoothly. On the actual day, we had to make sure to set up before the actual event during 4th period with a group of around 6 Link Crew leaders. We set up the chairs, barricades, the piemaking station, and the tables for check-in during 4th period. After the actual event, the highlights were that most of the teachers who got pied were happy after getting pied and that a lot of students had fun. The main highlight after the event was that after a student threw a pie at a teacher, as he was coming off the rally court stage he said, ‘Best two dollars I’ve ever spent!’” said Link Crew member junior Carlos Figueroa This excitement followed through, as the other Link Crew members remarked on their excitement for the event too, as well as the behind-the-scenes that we don’t see with Link Crew’s efforts in setting it up by lunch to be perfect for participants. “Personally, I was super excited to be getting back to traditions like the Pi day event that were put on hold by the pandemic. With all the
stress going on, this event allows students and teachers to have fun outside of the classroom, helps lift school spirits, and is honestly just a great way for everyone to let loose,” said ElKhoury These traditions are held dear to all Arcadia students. Being able to participate in this event brought together not only the numerous students who paid to participate in the event, and those watching but also humanized the teachers who participated with their students. This Pi day event not only was an incredibly fun experience for the students, but this was also the first time for more than half of the students at Arcadia High School has ever heard of the event, so this was a big step forward toward the forthcoming normalcy after the pandemic for about two years. Thank you to Link Crew for hosting this event and reviving a long-lost tradition.
sli@arcadiaquill.com Graphics courtesy of PIXABAY.COM
LINK CREW PI DAY
By MARYAM SADEGHIFARD Staff Writer
The long-awaited date that students and math teachers had all been waiting for, Mar. 14 finally arrived. In honor of this special day, Link Crew decided to commemorate it by hosting a “Happy Pi Day” event in which students were able to share their excitement for the day, along with releasing a little bit of the stress they’ve had all the way through Quarter 3. This event held on Mar. 10 at lunch was a perfect opportunity to spend time with friends at the rally court and teachers, too. By paying $2, any student could throw a pie respectfully at their teacher’s face. “We wanted to have some fun and celebrate! There were a handful of teachers who were there, and anyone who bought a pie threw it at whichever teacher they wanted, who was participating! It was super exciting because there were some teachers who I knew were there, and I was so looking forward to pieing them. Also seeing other people pieing their
msadeghifard@arcadiaquill.com Graphic courtesy of FREESVG.ORG
