News and Events
279 middle school students from 6 states debated at the Championship Tournament
National News – May 5, 2018, Nest +m school
Should reptiles be pets? Should the Olympics include video games? Should the US adopt a guaranteed minimum income level? These are just a few of the topics middle school students debated during the English in Action Middle School Debate Championship Tournament on May 5 in New York City. 279 debaters from 33 schools from New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, Virginia, Maryland and Colorado converged at the Nest +m public school to participate in the seventh annual tournament.
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Rachel Carson Middle School from Herndon, Virginia won the final debate against The Dalton School from New York, New York. Taking home the Top Speaker and coveted Golden Gavel awards was Jasmine Sanchez of West End Secondary School in New York, NY for earning top individual speaker points across all five rounds of debate.
Award Listings
Top Speaker and Winner of the Gavel: Jasmine Sanchez of West End Secondary School in Manhattan, NY
2nd Place Speaker: Andrew Dupper of Rocky Heights Middle School in Lone Tree, CO
3rd Place Speaker: Jake Berg of The Dalton School in Manhattan, NY
1st Place Team and Winner of Public Championship Debate: Vivikta Rao, Amrita Sahu and Julia Lamy of Rachel Carson Middle School in Herndon, VA
2nd Place Team: Theo Avedisian, Alejandro Breen, and Jake Berg of The Dalton School in Manhattan, NY
3rd Place Team: Maya Miller, Maymay Shair, Catherine Lapey of The Hackley School in Tarrytown, NY
1st Place School: The Hackley School in Tarrytown, NY
2nd Place School: Rachel Carson Middle School in Herndon, VA
3rd Place School: Cedar Hill Preparatory School in Somerset, NJ
1st Place Tournament Award was a 3-way tie between: Norwood School (Bethesda, MD), South Orangetown Middle School (S. Orangetown, CT) and West End Secondary School (New York, NY)
4th Place Tournament Award: The Hackley School in Tarrytown, NY
5th Place Tournament Award: Rachel Carson Middle School in Herndon, VA
Top League Schools
Douglas County (CO) Debate League: Rocky Heights Middle School
New York Debate League (Big Apple Division): The Dalton School
New York Debate League (Empire Division): The Hackley School
Nation's Capital Debate League: Rachel Carson Middle School
Jersey Shore Debate League: Barkalow Middle School
Garden State Debate League: Cedar Hill Preparatory School
Connecticut Middle School Debate League: South Orangetown Middle School
Middle School Debate teaches the fundamentals of argumentation and debate to students in grades 5-8 while developing their critical thinking and language arts skills. More than 50 public, private, parochial and charter schools participate in the program, engaging more than 1,000 teenagers annually in weekly after-school debate activities.
The English in Action Middle School Debate Program is a joint venture with Middle School Public Debate Program at Claremont McKenna College, the world's largest program for classroom and contest debating for middle school students.
We thank the Axe-Houghton Foundation, the Richard Davoud Donchian Foundation and the Henry E. Niles Foundation, as well as all our individual donors, for their generous support for the Middle School Public Debate Program.
