2024 Harvard

Last weekend, Vancouver Debate Academy participated in one of the most challenging competitions of the year- The Harvard National Speech and Debate Tournament. Both online, and in person on Harvard’s campus in Cambridge, Massachusetts, a total of 26 teams from VDA battled it out in six different divisions for a chance to be the next champion. 

We are very excited to share our results! 

Beginning with the in person crew, our traveling team saw its fair share of success. Doing well at a tournament like Harvard in-person is very challenging. Students who compete on Harvard’s campus experience  grueling travel times and demanding competition schedules. Their success is both impressive and commendable. 

In Junior Varsity, the team of Casey (Caitlin) Lee and Kimi (Yican) Jin advanced to Triple-Octofinals, landing themselves in the top 64 out of 230 teams! As well, Casey received 28th speaker and Kimi received 54th speaker out of 460 competitors! Fantastic job, guys! 

In Varsity, three of our four participating teams advanced to elimination rounds! The teams of Fredrick Li and Steven Lin, Serena Zhang and Annie Zhao, & Sophia Zhang and Yannie Ye all advanced to Partial-Quads, landing each time in the top 35% of teams at the tournament! 

For speaker results, Nikki Zheng was our top Varsity speaker on the team, landing her the 39th speaker spot out of over 700 competitors! Wayne Liang also took away an impressive speaker ranking with a rank of 114, placing him 20% of speakers in Varsity! The competition in Varsity was extremely challenging, and all of our teams should be very proud of their performances!

For our online divisions, VDA had a very impressive run as we dominated the competition. Students online competed in Beginner and Open divisions and both groups had an amazing turnout! 

Beginning with our Beginner division, ten teams represented VDA as they battled it out in a pool of 150 teams. Making it through two rounds of eliminations and ending their journeys in Quarterfinals, the teams of Iona Jiang and Clair Xing & Andy Huang and Yuki Song claimed their spots in the top 8. And, finishing strong to represent our team, Emma Davis and Catherine Zhao destroyed the competition as they claimed second place for the Beginner Online division! 

For our Beginner speakers, we also had a very strong showing! Please join me in congratulating the following students for landing in the top 15% of speakers out of 300 competitors:

5th Place- Yuki Song

8th Place- Clair Xing

17th Place- Catherine Zhao

24th Place- Andy Huang

32nd Place- Iona Jiang

40th Place- Emma Davis

Great job, team!

Last but not least, let’s celebrate the Online Open competitors. VDA had six teams participating in the Open division, with five out of six advancing to eliminations! Advancing to doubles and landing in the top 32, the teams of Bruce Zhong and Annie Zhou, Aella Gong and Vivian Lang, & Flora Tu and Nathan Yan. And, advancing to the Octofinals, landing in the top 16 teams, the team of Ardelle Tian and Andy Zhang. Finally, as our biggest achievement at Harvard this year, the team of Aarav Motivala and Sahaj Bhandari walked away with the Champion title of the Open Online Division. Fantastic job, guys!

Our speaker awards in Open were also impressive! Please join us in celebrating the students that landed in the top 10% of speakers:

1st Place- Annie Zhou

6th Place- Nathan Yan

8th Place- Bruce Zhong

11th Place- Aarav Motivala

Fantastic job!

The weekend was challenging and we had our fair share of healthy competition, but we should be very proud of what we accomplished as a team. Excellent job, VDA family!