By Timmy Curry and Aaron Soliz, Clarion Staff
JFK’s Speech and debate team went to Woodcreek High School in Roseville on Saturday October 8th. We had twelve Kennedy students make it to the finals, Darren Sha, Danke Stroup, Bruce Tran, Sareth Silvestre, Allison Newens, Rohit Jhawar, Tatiyana Weltman, Bernadette Tropel, Irene Lai, Ellis Penn, Izaak Lau, Taylor Bains, and Alana Lee. The Clarion interviewed Bernadette Tropel and Irene Lai and observed their duo interpretation, a brief, humorous of dramatic act in which partners cannot make physical or eye contact with one another. Irene and Bernadette are the first ever Kennedy sophomores to make it to the finals in a speech and debate competition. They performed an amusing skit called, “How to Succeed in High School Without Really Trying,” by Jonathan Rand. Their act was comical, free from errors, and displayed a great amount of enthusiasm and energy.
After the competition, we had the privilege to interview competitor and Kennedy student Darren Sha, one of the finalists. When asked how he felt before he presented his humorous interpretation, Darren stated, “At first, I was mildly nervous about the other groups performing at the competition...” Despite this, he expressed to us that he felt good no matter what place he earns in the finals. In the end, Lee came in 1st place for Novice Oratorical, where competitors recite their own interpretation of another person’s speech. Jhawar scored 2nd place for Novice Impromptu, where speakers must form a five minute speech on a random topic in two minutes. Tropel and Lai walked away with 3rd place from Duo Interpretation. The en- tire team undoubtedly showed great effort in the competition. Great job, team!