Hilltalkers' IWST

P-Russ's recap:

SUBJECT: Top Debater in the State at Los Alamos IWST! 🦅🥇🌎

Good afternoon, all,

We had a loooooong, rainy day yesterday, going all the way out to Los Alamos and back for the Hilltalkers' Introductory World Schools Tournament. This competition only offered one event: World Schools Debate. WSD is a truly unique team-based event (and a great one for a team from an IB school!). In the three seasons since the reboot, we have only ever had three students compete in it, and each did so at Nationals (Natashia Anderson and Jordyn Begay in Phoenix two summers ago, and Haylei Redhouse in Des Moines this past summer). Even though we were lucky enough to have Tash along with us, our team was pretty green!

Nevertheless, your Gavelin' Eagles brought home the gold again, as Natashia Anderson was recognized as the #1 debater in the state at the end of the competition! Even though it's been well over a year since she last dabbled in this event, I guess she's still got it.

I want to commend the entire team for stepping out of their comfort zone and trying this dynamic style of debate. In addition to Tash, please join me in congratulating Kiona Manson, Zane Alba, Lilly Crotty (her s&d debut!), and Evan Speck for their hard work and bravery! They all did us proud.

Also, this past Thursday, Ayden Redhouse placed second in a nationwide online scrimmage in the event of Original Spoken Word Poetry. Bravo, Ayden!

Ayden and many others are getting ready to compete right here at home at this weekend's Atsá Invitational. We will be hosting over a hundred students from eight different schools at a culture night on Friday and then in competition on Saturday. There's a lot left to do to prepare, but we are very excited! A big advance thanks to Ms. James-Belin and Mr. Belin for all the help they are offering the team with the culture night in particular. If you're interested in helping out as well, let me know.

Best,

Russell