44 THE QUEENS COURIER • BUZZ • FEBRUARY 18, 2021 FOR BREAKING NEWS VISIT WWW.QNS.COM
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Jackson Heights teen qualifi es for prestigious debate competition
BY SOFIA VALDES
editorial@qns.com
@QNS
A Jackson Heights high school student
has qualifi ed to compete in the prestigious
Tournament of Champions, a national
high school debate tournament held at the
University of Kentucky.
Emma Anderson, a junior at the Loyola
School, will debate in the tournament in
April.
Th e Tournament of Champions (TOC)
is a national high school debate tournament
Flushing Catholic school rings in the Chinese New Year
BY CARLOTTA MOHAMED
cmohamed@schnepsmedia.com
@QNS
As part of their celebration of Catholic
Schools Week, students at St. Michael’s
Catholic Academy in Flushing observed
the Chinese New Year with a variety of
age-appropriate lessons and activities in
their classrooms on Friday, Feb. 12.
Th e activities included studying Chinese
artwork, the 12 Chinese zodiac animals,
cultural and food traditions, as well as
craft ing lanterns and making dumplings.
“Th is year, St. Michael’s continues to
celebrate the richness the Chinese culture
brings to our academy,” said Maureen
Rogone, principal of St. Michael’s
Catholic Academy. “Although our activities
are centered in each separate cohort
due to COVID restrictions, the teachers
and students showed much enthusiasm
in preparing for the New Year. We
look to celebrate as a whole community
next year.”
In preparation for the celebration, students
were encouraged to wear red or
other Chinese clothing to usher in the
New Year. Th e school followed the health
guidelines and restrictions for social distancing
with celebrations in each grade
level cohort and not as a group assembly
as done in previous years.
Each class showcased their artwork at
the celebration.
PKA students focused on Chinese artwork
while kindergarten and fi rst-grade
students learned about the importance
of the Chinese zodiac animals and performed
a traditional Chinese New Year
song. Second-grade students learned
about Chinese culture and the importance
of food in relation to the geographic
regions, as well as the importance of family
gatherings and eating together.
Th ird grade students made lanterns
and compared American New Year with
Chinese New Year, and students in grades
6-8 infused the Chinese culture in their
academic studies — the Silk Road in
China and interpreting how Confucius’
wisdom can be applied to their lives.
Th e student body at St. Michael’s, located
at 136-58 41st Ave., is approximately 70
percent Asian. Since 2013, the school has
off ered instruction in the Mandarin language
to all students from pre-K through
eighth grade.
For 170 years, St. Michael’s has welcomed
immigrant families in the heart of
downtown Flushing. Its immigrant population
has shift ed from predominantly
European/Hispanic to Asian, primarily
Chinese. Th e school’s most recent census
indicates that its student body is almost 70
percent Asian, while maintaining a significant
Hispanic population slightly under
30 percent.
In 2012, the academy applied for admission
and was to the TWIN-CS (Two Way
Immersion Network for Catholic Schools)
with the Roche Center for Catholic
Education at Boston College.
Since 2013, the school has off ered a
language immersion program with
Mandarin. Currently, students in kindergarten
through eighth grade receive
instruction in the Mandarin language.
PKA students are introduced to basic concepts
in Mandarin.
that is considered to be the national
championship of the “National Circuit.”
In order to qualify, you must place
high enough in other competitions to
earn bids. At least two bids are needed
to compete. Anderson secured the placement
by reaching the semi-fi nals at the
Barkley Forum for High Schools at Emory
University.
“It’s kind of weird to process. I was really
happy that I qualifi ed but at the same time
I was like, ‘Wow, like this is really happening,’”
Anderson said. “But then, I feel like
it maybe set in and I’m proud of what I
have achieved and how I’ve been able to
work for this but also at the same time
it’s scary because there are so many other
amazing debaters that have also worked
even harder so it’s going to be fun to be
able to compete with all of them and really
challenge myself in such a great environment.
I love the people who are in debate.”
Anderson joined her high school debate
team when she was only a sophomore,
making this her second year competing
on her team.
“I’ve always been interested in politics
and kind of like current events. And so,
I just decided to try it out in sophomore
year and it turns out I really liked it and
I was really happy with my progress and
the people that I met and I just felt like it’s
an extracurricular I really enjoyed and I’d
love to foster my passion for it.”
In the short time that Anderson has
been on her debate team, she has earned
a leadership role along with two others to
guide debaters and help them prepare for
upcoming competitions.
“We coach all the novices and we run
all the practices each week,” Anderson
said. “We spend that time preparing but
also we’ll spend a lot of the nights writing
speeches or researching our topics and
then the night before we usually just wrap
some things up and make sure everything
is good to go.”
Since the pandemic, competitions have
been held via Zoom, which Anderson has
been grateful for because it gives her the
opportunity to gain experience by competing
in tournaments all over the U.S.
that she normally wouldn’t have had the
chance to be a part of.
“Th ey’re holding the TOC remotely
this year, like a lot of the diff erent tournaments
will be so, they’ve done a lot of
them over Zoom and it’s been really nice
because we haven’t had to pay for travel
costs so you can go to a lot of diff erent
tournaments and meet a lot of new
diff erent people,” Anderson said. “Th is
year, we have been able to go to so many
more tournaments and that’s brought up
so many opportunities just because we
haven’t had to travel or we’re not just limited
to the East Coast; we can branch out
to diff erent regions.”
TOC holds the following categories:
policy debate, Lincoln-Douglas debate,
public forum debate, and congressional
debate as well as some other individual
events. Anderson will be competing in the
congressional debate category.
Anderson will be given a few debate
topics two weeks before the competition
in order to prepare. Th en, in the few days
leading up to the competition, information
will be sent out confi rming which
topic the judges want her to debate.
Th e competition works in a bracket
style format in which you start
off with all the competitors in a
preliminary round and it will
slowly dwindle from there. If
you pass the fi rst round, you
will be placed in diff erent
sections such as the chambers
section. If you place
well, you will be advanced
to the semi-fi nal round
and then the fi nal round.
Th e former director of
debate at the University
of Kentucky, Dr. J. W.
Patterson created the
competition. Since its
1971 establishment,
the tournament has
served as one of the
best, top-tier competitions
around,
allowing the highest
ranking debaters
in America to compete.
Th is eliminates
the possibility of competing against lessexperienced
debaters, which runs the risk
of aff ecting the rankings. Further, this
competition will be judged by qualifi ed
individuals rather than volunteers or parents
commonly found at other debate
tournaments.
“At the Tournament of Champions,
everyone is qualifi ed. You know, it’s some
of the best in the nation and it’s a lot more
competitive and the fact that one is able
to get there is an accomplishment in and
of itself,” Anderson says. “So,
it’s really exciting to be a
part of it.”
Photo courtesy of St. Michael’s Catholic Academy
Students in each grade level cohort participated in activities celebrating Chinese New Year.
Photo courtesy of St.
Michael’s Catholic
Academy
Students in
each grade
level cohort
participated
in activities
celebrating
Chinese
New
Year.
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