Whiz Kids of the Week—Young Genius Bay Area Speech and Debate Academy Team

Young Genius Bay Area Speech and Debate Academy students won first place in most of the events at the Harker middle school league competition Dec. 7-8.

The Young Genius debaters were 9 of the top 16 students in the elimination rounds. They won 6 of their 8 debate rounds, and took home first, second and third place at the event, according to academy owner Helen Heinsohn.

In speech events, 11 school students made it into the final round of competition, she added.

Anthony Ding finished in first place in extemporaneous speech and Deepankar Joshi finished in first place in declamation speech, she said.

In public forum debate, five students made it into the elimination rounds out of 16 entries, the largest number in elimination rounds of any school at the tournament, she added.The competition featured 13 of the top middle schools in California.

The school's program begins students at an elementary level, starting in speech and then progressing to debate, beginning with the easiest format, congress and then moving up in difficulty level to Lincoln-Douglas, public forum, parliamentary and extemporaneous.

The team now turns its eyes toward the California State Championship in May and the National Championship in Kansas in June of 2014.   

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