Four student debaters traveled to Canberra Girls Grammar School in Canberra, Australia from April 14 to 20 to represent the school at the World Individual Debating and Public Speaking Championship.
The annual competition attracts the top high school debaters and public speakers from the U.S. and around the world. This year, Worlds included over 140 students from 15 different countries.
Meilan Antonucci ’24, Maadhavan Prasanna ’25, Isaiah Stephens ’25, and Ben Who ’24 represented the school at the competition. Peter Berlizov ’24 also qualified but was unable to attend. Mr. David Conti, head speech and debate coach, chaperoned.
The school is a member of the Debating Association of New England Independent Schools (DANEIS). To qualify for Worlds, students had to win first place advanced speaker at a DANEIS tournament during the 2023-2024 school year.
The four events at Worlds included coordinate debating, persuasive speaking, impromptu speaking, and interpretive reading.
Coordinate debating is similar to the British Parliamentary style that they were accustomed to in the DANEIS league. However, at Worlds, instead of being paired with one of their teammates from the school, they were each paired with a partner from a different school or even country.
For impromptu speaking, the speakers chose from among three different prompts, prepared for two minutes, and then spoke for three to five minutes. For prepared readings, the debaters worked on enunciation and articulation with Instructors in Theater Ms. MK Lawson and Ms. Sienna Brann.
Students conducted research and worked on prepared speeches for months before Worlds. Prasanna wrote his speech about illiberalism. He prepared with Mr. Conti to help draft the argument and deliver it sufficiently and practiced it at the Kingswood Oxford and NMH public speaking tournaments.
U.S. participants came from a range of schools, including Deerfield, Exeter, and Saint Sebastian’s. Prasanna said, “Team USA had a very strong bond this year. I was able to build lasting relationships that were deeply impactful. Worlds is a unique way to expand our cultural understanding within debate. I found it educational to simply listen to the high-quality speeches and debates by other people.”
Finalist status was awarded to competitors who placed in the top ten percent in each event. Who was a finalist in debate, Stephens was a finalist in both debate and impromptu speaking, and Antonucci was a finalist in debate, impromptu, and persuasive speaking.
Antonucci said, “It was my second time going to Worlds. I went last year to Durban, South Africa and came in nineteenth, so it was a good jump up this year to fourth. It was a nice culmination of four years of hard work and commitment to the team.”
