The student news site of The Archer School for Girls

The Oracle

The Latest
The student news site of The Archer School for Girls

The Oracle

The student news site of The Archer School for Girls

The Oracle

Instagram Feed
Email Subscription

Debate Team competes at UC Berkeley Cal Invitational

The+Archer+Debate+Team+competed+at+the+UC+Berkeley+Cal+Invitational+Feb.14-16.+The+girls+visited+with+Fatima+Toksanbaeva+14+who+is+now+a+student+at+UC+Berkeley.+Photographer%3A+Kate+Webster.
The Archer Debate Team competed at the UC Berkeley Cal Invitational Feb.14-16. The girls visited with Fatima Toksanbaeva ’14 who is now a student at UC Berkeley. Photographer: Kate Webster.

The Debate Team traveled to the UC Berkeley Cal Invitational Debate Tournament on Feb. 14. Five Archer girls, Isabel Adler ’17, Audrey Koh ’17, Sarah Wagner ’16, Isabelle Wilson ’17 and Marine Yamada ’17, all competed in an event that they had never participated in before: Impromptu Speaking.

Impromptu Speaking is an individual event that entails a five minute speech with short preparation time — about one to two minutes.

Wilson made it to the Octofinals elimination round, despite this being her first time competing in this event. Wilson’s advancement marks the first time Archer has advanced to Octofinals at Berkeley in the past five years.

“It was strange because I had never competed in the event before, but it showed me that I was better than I thought I was. I was exhausted at the end of the day too, the round was at 8:30 at night, and we hadn’t eaten, but it was exciting,” she said.

While competing, the girls debated topics ranging from Beyoncé and Taylor Swift lyrics to common phrases like “jump the gun,” “hit the nail on the head” and “follow the leader.” They had up to two minutes to prepare a five minute speech on the topic.

“It was a different experience than what we usually face at a debate tournament, so when we found out that we would be competing in such a different competition it was a little intimidating. Once we got there, the experience was really enjoyable and it really made you think on your feet and practice those skills,” Wagner said.

View Comments (1)
More to Discover
About the Contributor
Sydney Stone, Editor-in-Chief
Syd Stone graduated in 2016. She became the Voices Editor and the Social Media Manager during the 2013-2014 school year and continued in that position in 2014-2015.  She served as the Co-Editor-In-Chief of the Oracle with Sarah Wagner during her senior year. She played cello in the Upper School Orchestra, was a member of the Honor Education Council and was the senior chair of the Ambassador Leadership Team. She attended the journalism institute for high school seniors at Northwestern University, where she went on to pursue a journalism major in college.

Comments (1)

As part of Archer’s active and engaged community, the Editorial Board welcomes reader comments and debate and encourages community members to take ownership of their opinions by using their names when commenting. However, in order to ensure a diverse range of opinions, the editorial board does allow anonymous comments on articles as long as the perspective cannot be obtained elsewhere, and they are respectful and relevant. We do require a valid, verified email address, which will not be displayed, but will be used to confirm your comments. Because we are a 6-12 school, the Editorial Board reserves the right to omit profanity and content that we deem inappropriate for our audience. We do not publish comments that serve primarily as an advertisement or to promote a specific product. Comments are moderated and may be edited in accordance with the Oracle’s profanity policy, but the Editorial Board will not change the intent or message of comments. They will appear once approved.
All The Oracle Picks Reader Picks Sort: Newest

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

  • K

    Kate WebsterMar 13, 2015 at 2:46 pm

    So proud of the team! Nice work, all around 🙂

    Reply