Nine of our top delegates will be representing TAS at the Stanford Forensic Debate Tournament in California from February 7 to February 9. These students were selected from the IASAS debate and forensic team and will use the Stanford Forensic Debate Tournament as practice for IASAS. Students Rebecca P. (12), Anjoli G. (11), Eli M. (11), Annabel C. (12), Annie C. (12), Byron C. (11), Aaron G. (10), Ashley S. (12), and Johann W. (11) with coaches Dr. Emily Nelson, Dr. Coburn-Palo, and Mr. Brundage will be attend the tournament.
The Stanford tournament is one of the largest invitationals in the United States, with over a thousand students competing. Although practices for the Stanford tournament have been running concurrently with IASAS debate and forensic, this tournament is significantly different. The Stanford tournament is 2-on-2 instead of 3-on-3, and the field of students is much bigger.  “It’s a very exciting opportunity to compete against students with a different style, skillset, and approach to debate,” said Dr. Coburn-Palo.
Aaron Gould (10) was on the TAS IASAS debate team that won gold last year for the first time in 14 years. “I enjoy debate because debate offers a medium where people with opposing views can come together to have a logical and analytic discussion on a certain topic,” he said. Research, writing, and improvisation all factor together to make debate difficult, but Aaron admits that one of the hardest aspects of debate is “not being to read your handwriting, on your flow, in the middle of a speech.”
Debate has affected how Johann Wah (11) views life. “It has given me the ability to question a lot of things during classes and think of logical ways to solve them,” said Johann. “But more importantly, it has trained me to learn how to ‘convince’ my parents to letting me do certain things…”
Be sure to wish these participants luck as they travel this week. “We are extremely grateful to the school for the opportunity to attend this tournament and defend TAS with honor,” said Dr. Coburn Palo.