LEARNING & EDUCATION
RECORD-BREAKING YEAR FOR DRAGON DEBATE TEAM The 2015-16 school year was a year for tremendous growth and opportunity for the Dragon Debate team, with more than 100 students either enrolled in debate classes or actively competing in competitions. The Dragon Debate team has traveled all around the country participating in competitions, all while continuing to break district records. The Carroll debate team kicked off an exciting year by hosting the annual Dragon Faire TFA State Qualifier competition at Carroll High School in November. CISD hosted nearly 40 schools and more than 600 students at this qualifier event, which led straight into an extremely successful year for the Dragon Debate team. In January, the team traveled to the University of Texas in Austin to participate in the UIL State Congressional Debate Tournament, where Juniors Emma Lin and Dru Patel were both finalists, placing 10th and 12th respectively among all Class 6A competitors. Carroll boasted the most Congressional Debate qualifiers, including Emma Lin, Sunny Daggubati, Mafaaz
38 • INSIDE CARROLL
Tanzeem, Dru Patel, Chris Dao, Priyanka Reddy, Sowmiya Baskar, Hafsa Zuberi and Sahaj Singh. Carroll’s debate team accomplished another first in school history: qualifying its first-ever debate team in Public Forum Debate to the annual Tournament of Champions at the University of Kentucky, the most prestigious national tournament in Congressional Debate. The Dragon Speech and Debate team also defended its UIL Team Championship this year, with a district championship in Informative Extemporaneous Speaking, Persuasive Extemporaneous Speaking, Poetry Interpretation and Cross-Examination Debate. The team also captured the overall Top Speech/Debate team award for this year’s UIL 6A District 7 contest. The Dragon Debate team also participated in the UIL Regional tournament held at UT Arlington, the Kandy King Round Robin in Houston and the Texas Forensic Association State Tournament in Austin. The team also had the exciting opportunity to travel to Harvard University for the Harvard Debate Tournament in February. “In debate, coaches and competitors are allowed to challenge the use of their opponent’s evidence among other things. Despite protests from other schools, Carroll eventually found its way to Nationals for a record 14th time in school history,” says Coach David Brown about the team’s journey to the national tournament. “It was a stressful but transformative and memorable experience.” The debate team finished out their incredibly successful season with four students qualifying to compete in the National Speech and Debate Association National Tournament in Salt Lake City, Utah. Qualifying for Nationals were Sam Bonham and Austin Meek in Public Forum Debate, Emma Lin in Congressional Debate and Alex Frederick in Domestic Extemporaneous Speaking, with Bonham and Meek finishing in the Top 20 in Public Forum Debate out of 280 qualifying teams. Lin finished as a semifinalist in Congressional Debate. The Dragon Debate team has reached the Carroll ISD core value of excellence this year. Through their hard work and dedication, this incredible team accomplished success after success, breaking school records and constantly improving the program along the way. The Dragon Debate team will kick off the 2016-17 school year not as the underdog, but as the team to beat.