The prestigious American Heritage Schools are pleased to announce that their Speech and Debate Team from their Broward Campus was awarded State Champions for the fourth consecutive year. The team competed at the Florida Forensic League (FFL) Varsity State Championship Tournament in Orlando, Florida.
“We are extremely proud of the Speech and Debate team, and their collective efforts in achieving State Champions once again,” said Ryan Leveque, director of speech and debate at American Heritage Schools’ Broward Campus. “The students have truly outdone themselves and to see them come together as a team has been inspiring. Winning is merely a byproduct of their passion for the activity and the joy of the experience together as a team.”
In addition to the team achieving state champions, multiple students earned individual state championships in their respective categories – Jaimee Canalejo in Humorous Interpretation and Esther Oyetunji in Original Oratory. Dynamic duo Sophie Simon and Kennedy Hack-Juman also achieved state champions in Duo Interpretation. Spencer Swickle (who received the top speaker award) and Mason Cheng (who won the fourth place speaker award) were named state champions in the Policy Debate category.
Other high-earning achievements include Sharvaa Selvan (who also earned the third place speaker award) and Ethan Roytman (who also earned the fifth place speaker award) won second place in the Public Forum Debate category. Esther Oyetunji won second place in Program Oral Interpretation and Diane Li won third place in Dramatic Interpretation. In Duo Interpretation, Laura Marberger and Jade Capella achieved third place, and Jack Radosevich and Sasha-Kay London were semifinalists. In Humorous Interpretation, Kennedy Hack-Juman won third place and Medha Balaji was a semifinalist.
In the After Dinner Speaking category, Jaimee Canalejo achieved third place and Saanya Dham achieved fourth place. Jade Capella earned fifth place in Informative Speaking, Ronak Patel earned sixth place in International Extemp, and Zoe Weissman earned seventh place in Congressional Debate.
Carly Aikens was a semifinalist in Original Oratory, Mary Abi-Karam and Evan Burkeen were semifinalists in Public Forum Debate, Sophie Simon was a semifinalist in Dramatic Interpretation, and Suriya Gadh and Veer Roy were semifinalists in Informative Speaking. Jake Zeng, Charlotte Wu, Rosa Wu, Taeyoung Kim and Akanksha Patra also were quarterfinalists in World Schools Debate.
The American Heritage Broward Speech and Debate team is coached by Ryan Leveque, Spencer Orlowski and Joele Denis.
American Heritage Schools is the No. 1 private school in Florida for nationally-recognized scholars in math competition, science fair, mock trial, moot court, and speech and debate. Alumni are notable leaders in their chosen fields who are generating positive differences in the world. American Heritage Schools is an independent, non-sectarian, co-educational, college preparatory school in South Florida serving grades Pre-K3 to 12.