Brooks Quimby Debate Council hosts annual high school tournament
For the third consecutive year, the Brooks Quimby Debate Council hosted a Maine high school forensics tournament. Approximately 315 students took part in the all-day event on Saturday, Nov. 19. A scheduled tournament for the 2005-06 season of the Maine Forensics Association, the judged competition featured events in speech, Lincoln-Douglas and public forum debate and student congress. The MFA promotes the development of articulate leadership among secondary students throughout the state.
ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ College junior Vaibhav Bajpai of Calcutta, India, organized the ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ College Forensics Tournament with the help of his debate teammates and their coach, Bryan Brito, director of debate at ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½. Lewiston
High School speech coach John Blanchette, ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ Class of 1987, helped to organize the speech events for the tournament.
This year, ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ added the category of public forum to the tournament and increased the number of high school competitors by 55. “We hope to keep growing this tournament in order to develop a closer connection with the high school debate and speech community in Maine,” Bajpai says.
Schools receiving top tournament honors from the Quimby Debate Council were: Edward Little High School for best overall performance by a team in student congress; Brunswick High School for best overall performance by a team in Lincoln-Douglas debate; Bangor High School for best overall performance by a team in public forum debate; and Skowhegan High School for best overall performance by a team in speech.
To support the tournament, the Quimby Debate Council received funding from the offices of the president and dean of students and the Harward Center for Community Partnerships.
