Concluding another year of debates and speeches for the Forensics Team, the annual KAIAC Forensics Championships was held at Yongsan International School of Seoul on April 10-11. SIS placed first at the championships, but placed second overall for the league, which takes into consideration all four tournaments throughout the year.
“Debaters tended to not do as well at the [Championships] when compared to the other tournaments in the past,” said Albert Kim (12), Forensics debate team mentor. “So I am really proud that we finished the year strong, especially as it shows that we are capable of placing first overall for the league.”
In previous years, a lack of participants in speech events hurt the overall ranking of SIS when compared to other international schools that have competitors in more categories. Also, there were few students interested in participating in Lincoln-Douglas debates.
However, this year, in the speech tournament, Daniel Jungho Choi (11) placed first in extemporaneous speaking, followed by Nicholas Kim (9) and Matthew Kang (11), who placed second and third respectively. Juniors Gina Lee and Angela Yoon placed first in prose and second in impromptu respectively, while freshmen Monica Lee and Haelee Chloe Chung placed third in poetry and in original oratory respectively. In the debate tournament, Jiwhan Moon (10) and Nuri Choi (9) placed first in public forum debate, followed by freshmen Lucy Jung and Andrew Ham, who placed second, and sophomores Claire Kim and Heewon Kim, who placed third. Juniors Lauren Ahn and Heejin Hong placed first in parliamentary debate, followed by Matthew and Alice Kang (10), who placed fourth. Rachel Kang (10) placed third in Lincoln-Douglas debate.
“Previously, people did not want to participate in events that were not fully established,” said Erik Anderson, Forensics coach. “ But since this is the second year we have had a Lincoln-Douglas team, we were able to attract more participants than last year. Also, we improved our performance in the speech events by convincing students to change their speech every tournament so that they could improve their skills overall.”
According to Coach Anderson, there will be changes in the next school year. Everyone, including existing members, will need to try out. Also, the season will follow the athletics schedule instead of a semester schedule and thus will be spilt into a fall and spring season.
“Because our team will be larger as a whole, more people can participate,” Coach Anderson said. “Also, people no longer have to prioritize a sport over Forensics or vice versa because of the spilt seasons.”