Local Debate Students Participate in UK Season Opener Tournament

The University of Kentucky held its online debate season opener from September 12 - 14. This was the largest tournament hosted by the UK with 1700 students from 30 states and 4 countries. The Public Forum debate division consisted of 500 teams, 3 divisions, and 300 judges that all needed to be orchestrated seamlessly. The debate organizers had an extraordinary task of putting a virtual tournament of this scale together and it was an enormous effort by many. The result was a quality, professional tournament experienced by everyone involved.

The topic for the tournament was "Resolved: The United States federal government should enact the Medicare-For-All Act of 2019".

Ivy Bridge Academy had 22 Middle School and High School students participate in the 2020 National Speech and Debate Season Opener Hosted by UK.

Congratulations to all students!

Middle School Champions!!

Neha Mahesh and Rikhil Ranjit

5th Place Team

Gene Yoon and Ethan Nam

MS Speaker Award

3rd Speaker

Rikhil Ranjit

5th Speaker

Neha Mahesh

31st Speaker

Saket Churlwal

High School

5th Place Team

Mandy Yang and Paheli Patel

9th Place Team

Irene Tang and Ashley Wang

HS/Speaker Award

5th Place

Paheli Patel

18th Place

Mandy Yang

40th Place

Ashley Wang

IBA Teams

MS

Siri Manekar and Claire Park

Rikhil Ranjit and Neha Mahesh

Saket Churiwal and Brandon Yoo

Gene Yoon and Ethan Nam

HS

Mandy Yang and Paheli Patel

Lynden Baek and Alex Ko

Dev Iyer and Sabrina yang

Irene Tang and Ashley Wang

Yugeshwar Muralidhar and Nina Thakur

Aiden Kim and Aalif Biswas

Noah Yoon and Daniel So

Furthermore, we would also like to thank Coach Patrick, Hanming, Karthik, Pranaya, and all of our parents, judges, and coaches for their tireless efforts throughout this successful weekend. Each one of them sacrificed their priceless time to bring home the championship trophy to Ivy Bridge!

Overall, Ivy Bridge is so proud of all of our students and the hard work each one puts forth to compete at a national level. Each of these tournaments allows all debaters to learn, improve, work together, and demonstrate their skills in tournaments.

Upcoming online tournaments:

1. 2020 Georgetown University tournament on October 9-10th.

2. IBA Novice tournament October 16-17th

Ivy Bridge Academy currently offers virtual public speaking and debate classes at local schools in their after school program as well as weekend virtual classes offered to all students in the area.