Spotlight on Student Achievements

At the first Board of Education meeting of the 2011-2012 school year last Thursday, the Eastern Middle School Debate Team was part of the student recognition for their success in last spring's state competition. 

Those students who were recognized were:

Isabel Baird
Karla Cox
Spencer Pevsner
Olivia Scharfman
Nathaniel Ung
Andrew Ma

Civics First, a private and non-profit association, is the annual sponsor of the Young People’s Debate Program in which the students participated in. The organization's mission is to "promote and conduct law-related education programs and projects in Connecticut's public and private schools, courtrooms and communities."

The association was established in 1976 with a goal to incorporate citizenship education into the curriculum of all primary and secondary schools.

First, a regional debate tournament was held on Tuesday, May 10 at Central Middle School with teams from Eastern, Central, Western, Middlesex, and Greenwich Catholic Middle Schools competing. The topic of this year's debate competition was the death penalty.

Three of the five Eastern Middle School pairs proceeded to the state finals on May 19.  With all three Eastern teams winning their quarter final matches, they advanced to the final four.

First, in an all Greenwich semifinal match with Eastern vs. Eastern going head to head, Ung and Ma narrowly out scored Pevsner and Scharfman. Next, a homeschooled team eliminated Baird and Cox to move onto the finals. While Ung and Ma gave a solid peformance, the team of Camille Chill and Meghan Henderson from Henderson Home School went onto win the State Competition.

The Eastern teams finished a respectful and impressive 2nd (Ung and Ma) 3rd (Pevsner and Scharfman) and 4th (Baird and Cox.)

Per the rules on the Civics First website, each team consists of two people.  The teams do not utilize "charts, handouts, props, written briefs or any other written, photographic or electronic materials" used in any debate competition and the students must solely rely on oral argument.

The Young People’s Debate is run in four rounds with all teams competing in the first two rounds. Each team will present both sides of the debate and they are told which side they will be presenting first at the competition. The top two teams from each regional competition will be invited to compete in the semi-final round on a different day. The two winners from the semi-final round will then compete in the final round immediately following the semi-finals.

Congratulations to all of the Greenwich debaters!