NOV. 15, 2017
HWCHRONICLE.COM/NEWS
NEWS A3
Debate team gets most bids
BY SOPHIE HABER
The debate team is leading the nation with 19 bids to the Tournament of Champions. Jaya Nayar ’20, Spencer Paul ’19, Lauren Morganbesser ’19, Jake Davidson ’19, Chronicle assistant opinion editor Vishan Chaudary ’19, Chronicle freelancer Indu Pandey ’18 and Chronicle staff writer Alexandra Mork ’20 each received the two bids necessary to qualify for the tournament, which will be held April 28-30 in Lexington, Kentucky. At the Damus Hollywood Invitational, the most recent tournament hosted at Harvard-Westlake, Nayar, Mork and Andrew Gong ’21 received bids. Mork won the entire tournament. “Our team has been working really hard all year, so I was very excited that Damus was such a successful tournament for me and my teammates,” Mork said Morganbesser said she found out she qualified while at dinner with her teammates. There, she saw the bracket showing she would debate Samantha McLaughlin ’21 in the next round. At a tournament, two students from the same school cannot debate each other.
SOPHIE HABER /CHRONICLE
MAKE YOUR BID: Chronicle staff writer Alexandra Mork ’20 gives a rebuttal speech during a practice debate round. Mork received two bids, one at the Meadows Tournament in Las Vegas and one at the Damus Tournament which is held at the Upper School. If a student does have to debate someone from the same school, the person with higher seeding in preliminary rounds advances in what is called a walk over. If this happens in a bid round, then both debaters get a bid, meaning Morganbesser received her second bid of the season and McLaughlin her first. “We both jumped up and hugged each other.” Morgan-
besser said. “We were just super happy, and the whole team was so supportive. I’ve been debating since eighth grade, and what we’re working for the whole time is qualifying, so to hear that I had qualified was the best feeling.” Nayar said that after she qualified, she felt relieved because she could focus on the debate rather than getting a bid for the TOC.
“That’s part of the reason why I feel like I’ve been doing so much better,” Nayar said. “Because I don’t have that same nervous feeling that I really need to get a bid to the TOC.” Because Paul got to the octofinals of the tournament last year, he automatically qualified for this year’s TOC. “This year my expectations have changed going into
it,” Paul said. “Last year I had no pressure going in because I didn’t expect myself to do that well but this year, being more experienced, I have been working really hard to perform well.” In addition to those who have already qualified, the team is now working to obtain more bids in the coming months, specifically for younger debaters.
School hosts Pollyanna Conference
BY VALERIE VELAZQUEZ
KAITLIN MUSANTE/CHRONICLE
DEEP DEI DISCUSSIONS: Josephine Amakye ’21, Diana Castellanos ’20 and Daniel Varela ’18 chat at the Pollyanna Conference.
The Middle School hosted the inaugural Pollyanna Conference, which aims to start conversations about diversity, equity and inclusion within local schools through workshops and discussions, on Saturday. This year’s conference focused on race, privilege and community building. “I definitely think it’s a step in the right direction because it gives us the opportunity to come together and talk together, and to see that any kind of challenges that we have in our school, other schools also have those challenges,” Spanish
School to build Community Athletics Center • Continued from A1
have far less travel time to their practices and games,” Commons said. “Kids could perhaps have eighth period classes where they haven’t been able to because they’ve needed to go to the softball field. Or they could get home in time for dinner with their families.” Before Harvard-Westlake started negotiations to purchase the land, owners of the Weddington property were in the process of building apartments to replace the current green space, owner Matt Becker said. But after the school approached the owners to begin
negotiations, Becker said the owners were excited to move forward with Harvard-Westlake and their plans to preserve the property. “We couldn’t have found a better partner to purchase the property,” Becker said. “It will serve the community in the best possible way. To have an open space with athletic fields and recreational space for the community is the most important thing.” The open layout and flat landscape of the new property allows for more building opportunities than are available at the Upper School, Holthouse said. “Right now we’ve got this big piece of land and we can really start imagining what we
might be able to do with it over a period of time,” Holthouse said. “I can’t say the opportunities are endless, but they’re definitely vast.” Harvard-Westlake will re-evaluate the current plans for the Parking, Safety & Athletic Improvement Project and explore parking alternatives after receiving complaints from neighbors. New ideas include increasing parking on campus to replace plans to add a structure on the west side of Coldwater Canyon, which would require a retaining wall and a bridge to connect the structure to the campus, Commons said. Commons said the athletics center will also ease neighbors’ concerns about an
teacher and attendee Veronica Cherry said. Keynote speaker Tricia Rose, Professor of Africana Studies and Director of the Center for Study of Race and Ethnicity in America at Brown University, discussed the importance of diversity in school environments. Each participating school came in PODS, which included administrators, alums, current students and other members of the school community. After meeting in groups to discuss problems concerning race, gender and diversity, students shared their ideas for solutions to the conference audience.
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Within the POD speeches, students identified steps to take action by brainstorming ideas as group. They collaborated on a final action plan by finding the overlap and common themes within the individual ideas. Students also shared their experiences in a panel setting before attending breakout sessions. “I think it makes all the adults in the room even more inspired to help out, and it’s a great space for the kids,” upper school dean Chris Jones said. The evening concluded with a wine and cheese reception for adults.
We are literally able to buy time by making this purchase because we can enable students to have far less travel time to their practices and games.” —Rick Commons President
increase in traffic because the new space will alleviate traffic congestion around the upper school campus. He said he hopes to earn the neighbors’ trust and intends to make the development process transparent and thoughtful. LA City Council member Paul Krekorian, who represents the Studio City community, released a public statement following the school’s announcement.
WHITE’S
“I’m glad that Harvard-Westlake is shelving its plans to build a parking structure across the street from its Coldwater campus,” Krekorian said in his press release. “They deserve credit for listening to the serious concerns that the community and I raised about the project, and their announced agreement to purchase Weddington Golf & Tennis shows they are ready to move in another direction.”