Stuy S&D Update #7: March 20, 2025

Hello Speech and Debate families!

Stuyvesant had a wonderful time hosting the National Qualifier NCFL Grand tournament  this past weekend, winning the tournament with 24 qualifiers for the National Catholic Forensics League tournament in Chicago. Our team qualified students in every speech and debate category,  the most out of any team in our league, and won the first place award for qualifying more students than any other school in our league. If you’d like to help get us to nationals, please consider sponsoring our team at this link. Every dollar goes a long way to getting us to Chicago. 

With lots of parents judging, and many more providing a wonderful international feast for our guests, a great time was had by all. We’d like to thank everyone who made this possible. “It takes a village:” Our school safety officers, the custodial staff, Dr. Yu, Mr. Moran, Ms. Ingram, as well as all parents, the alumni association, our team alums, and the countless team members who made everything run smoothly from 8 in the morning until 6 at night, and of course, our fearless leader, Ms. Julie Sheinman. 

As always, we are incredibly grateful for all of your support.

Best,

The S&D Team

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Team Updates

Extemp:

This past weekend, Extemp showed out at Grands! Junior Myles Vuong qualified for Catholic Nationals and sophomore Caitlyn Chan advanced to the semi-final round with senior Elma Khan having a strong showing as well. Our whole team had a blast watching rounds, holding down the fort  in 627, and volunteering with food! Last week Extemp also rocked the Last Chance tournament. With three champions (senior Matthias Gross, sophomore Alina Dong, and freshman Sam Bokor), Extemp picked up multiple qualifications for States. We're extremely excited to send our delegation up to States and Chicago!

Public Forum:

Public Forum has great success, with all three competing teams qualifying for Catholic Nationals! Congratulations to seniors Astrid Harrington and Helen Mancini for coming in 1st, sophomores Lander Bovenzi and Adrien Devery-Michaelson for coming in 2nd, and juniors Annie Li and Solomon Binyaminov for coming in 3rd.  Also, shout out to all of our dedicated PF volunteers who donated food or helped keep the tournament running.

Congress:

This last weekend, Stuy Congress continued our streak of success at the New York National Catholic Forensics League Grands Qualifier Tournament! Seniors Jiawen Lin and Daniel Prizant and junior Louis Oh-Aronson competed and all three qualified for the 2025 NCFL Tournament in Chicago, placing 2nd, 3rd, and 4th respectively! A big thank you to everyone from our team who volunteered! They had a great time helping to make sure the tournament ran smoothly, spectating rounds, and cheering on their teammates! We look forward to the second round of a BDL Tournament on March 19th (go novices and JV!), and NYSFL State Championships next month.

Lincoln Douglass:

LD had lots of fun competing at grands, and a special shoutout to our freshmen and sophomore members who showed out to support teammates, cut prep, and watched rounds. We had another successful year - senior Daniel Zheng went 8-0 to champ LD and senior Princeden Hom took home 7th place, winning a spot as an alternate for Catholic Nationals!

Parli:

Parli is not offered in the CFL, but we had a great time at the NYPDL March Online invitational this past weekend, with sophomore Lisa Burdi going 4-1 in prelims and making it all the way to varsity finals in eliminations. We’re looking forward to the NYPDL Brooklyn Tech Invitational this weekend, where we plan to send 12 teams!

Policy:

This week, Policy debate volunteered at NYCFL Grands and had a blast! After helping out with serving food and guiding people to their rounds, we decided to get some team bonding in! We have our teams pre qualified for nationals so representing us are: Atiya Firooz, Saloudian Barry, Rahul Kisson and Kassie Sinchi. We’re looking forward to competing in Chicago soon! 

Speech:

Speech had a TREMENDOUS showing on our home turf for the Grand tournament! We loved hosting everyone (thank you volunteers!) and we’re especially proud of our competitors. In Declamation, Sophomore Jaydon Mei earned 11th place, Mariya Markova earned 7th (as the alternate), and Ananya Gupta qualified for NCFLS. In Dramatic Performance, Juniors Ada Gordon won 8th, Amanda Greenberg, and Audrey Hilger qualified. In Duo Performance, Juniors Lily Wagman and Henry Santos Hendricks qualified  and Junior Sofia Lawrence and Senior Daniella Solomon did as well. Finally, in Oral Interpretation, Seniors Prajusha Azeem earned 12th and Renae Leung qualified.  Thank you to everyone who helped us with this tournament and we look forward to having a great states in a few weeks!

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Thank you for taking the time to read this update! We appreciate your time and effort to support the team. Don’t hesitate to reach out with any concerns or ideas.

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If you have any questions or would like to provide feedback, don't hesitate to reach out to us by responding to this email or contacting stuy4n6@gmail.com and jlin56@stuy.edu. We will get back to you as soon as possible.

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