Schools

Young Genius Learning Center Debate Team on Winning Streak

Middle-schoolers earn awards for their speech and debate prowess at local and regional level.

speech and debate students, who are in sixth and seventh grade, have been winning several local and regional competitions lately.

Competing against high school students, the Young Genius team in September of 2011 went up against 10th- and 11th-graders at the Harker High School San Jose.

In December of 2011, the middle-schoolers competed at the Santa Clara University high school tournament earning six awards for debate and speech excellence, said Helen Chered, owner of Young Genius Learning Center.

Young Genius team members Ananya Naturkar and Czarina Yip, both 13, were finalists in the novice public forum debate. Ananya received a third-place speaker award in the debate tournament, Chered said.

Last weekend, the students once again contended in the Martin Luther King, Jr. tournament at James Logan High School in Union City against high school teams from all over the country. They were the only middle school participants there, according to Chered.

Ananya came in eighth place in the Congressional Debate House competition.

The team's next match will be at Stanford University Feb. 11. They will participate in what is called the congressional debate in the so-called Student Congress, which operates as a mock congressional session.

Students will debate bills on current political and economic issues.

The team has been led for the past year by well-known California high school speech-and-debate coach Don Heinsohn.

Heinsohn has more than 40 years of experience in speech and debate coaching, having received the Triple Diamond Coaching Award from the National Forensics League, Chered said.

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The Young Genius Learning Center is located at 110 N Santa Cruz Ave., Suite B, in Los Gatos. The center has been open for more than two years.


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