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December
2007 HIGHLIGHTS
The Lake Forest High School Debate Team has gotten off to a great start
this year. The team participates in two organizations: the Illinois
Congressional Debate Association (ICDA), which is a competitive debating
league, and the Junior Statesmen of America (JSA), which is a national
student run organization with debating and thought talks concerning
current events. In October, the debate team hosted a one day JSA mini-convention
where schools from throughout Illinois and Wisconsin came to participate
in the debates and thought talks. More than eighty students from Wisconsin,
Chicago, and the North Shore attended and everyone had a great time.
The team leadership put on an engaging array of interesting and fun
debates, about topics ranging from nuclear retaliation and free trade
to the merits of video games. Both Ravi Mulani, the debate team president,
and Ellie Graham, debate team research chair, hold leadership positions
in JSA. Ravi is the governor of the Midwest region for JSA and the
chair of the national Council of Governors, and Ellie is the senator
for Illinois. The team will be taking a trip to a larger JSA convention
held in the Capitol building in Madison, Wisconsin from November 17
to 19.
This October, the team also participated in their first tournament
of the ICDA season, held at Elk Grove High School. They pulled off
a marvelous performance, with three members of the team, Ravi Mulani,
Ellie Graham, and Kosta Buhler winning the prestigious Critic’s
Choice award, Brandon Lesko, Andrew Koval and Ian Swift winning first
place awards, and Brian Wang, Joe Arnstein, Nikhil Mulani, Maggie Dasso,
Drew Desnick, Nate Balk and Kyle Flagstad all being nominated for awards
in their chambers. Sahil Shah and Brandon Lesko both wrote a bill that
was vigorously debated at the tournament, concerning the legalization
of industrial hemp production in the United States. The team is looking
forward to a successful debating season in ICDA ahead of them.
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