The morning of Oct. 14, an alarm went off at 6:45am. Senior Tanya Thanawalla woke up, got ready for school, and with her younger brother, fifth grader Samir Thanawalla, in tow, drove to school. Tanya then spent the morning in classes such as Honors Physics and Calculus. However, when the fifth class of the day was scheduled to begin, Tanya was on her way to the airport to fly to New York for the Bronx Science Round Robin debate tournament. Landing at 10 p.m., she began to go over arguments and fix cases. Being one of 12 debaters around the country invited to the tournament, she was looking to get good advice from the judges she would be competing in front of the next day. As she stayed up until 2 a.m., she remembered that when she returned home later in the week, there was still work to do.
"The thing that impressed me most is that there is a gradual yet continual level of improvement in regards to her understanding of arguments, her execution, and her preparation," said Aaron Timmons, Middle School and Upper School speech and debate teacher.
Tanya competes in tournaments every two weeks. This year, she will be traveling as far as Minnesota and Georgia. Most recently, Tanya was invited by the Round Robin director to participate in the Bronx Science Round Robin in New York, the oldest tournament of its kind, which gives advice to the competitors at the end of each debate round for future competitions. Tanya placed third in her group of six debaters at the Round Robin. She then competed at the Bronx Science tournament where she won five rounds, lost two rounds, and advanced to a break round.
On Homecoming Friday, Tanya competed in the St. Mark’s Heart of Texas debate tournament. Despite the necessity to prepare for the tournament, Tanya still made time to walk across the field with her mom at the homecoming football game. On the Saturday and Sunday of homecoming, Tanya competed in late elimination rounds, placing second in the Lincoln Douglas (LD) portion.
"I think it’s important for them to balance some of their normal school activities and being with their friends and doing the tournament," Mr. Timmons said. "Tanya [got] to walk on the field on Friday night, and she [got] to compete in the tournament."
Rubina Thanawalla, mother of Tanya and Samir, said that Tanya doesn’t always meet with her friends on the weekends, but that they will make time to do things together.
"I think she has a very good group of friends that make her make time for them," Mrs. Thanawalla said.
Tanya said that while debate takes up a large portion of her time, she has a lot of other things on her list of things to do, all of which require a lot of undivided attention occasionally trading off with other events.
"I take pride in the work I do," Tanya said. "I think that as long as I’m giving it my shot, I’m doing all that I can do in my capacity."
While in the debate class, Tanya also acts as a mentor for her teammates. She collaborates with coaches to write cases, do research on topics, and practice speaking quickly and clearly with speech drills. She also gives tips and critiques to other students’ cases.
"She’s really good at helping you answer questions, because a key part of debate is the cross-examination, where questions are asked about your case," said senior
Aliza Mohammed.
There are two different types of debate. Tanya has been a LD debater for three years. In LD debate, the competitor works alone, and focuses mainly on moral questions that change every two months. Recently, Tanya has been working on the topic of standardized testing and its prevalence in graduating high school. Tanya switched to LD from Policy debate, a style which involves debating with partners and requires more research per topic, since the policy topic stays the same throughout the year, and each debate round requires longer speeches.
"One of my favorite aspects of LD is the topic changes every two months," Tanya said. "There is a wider range of information to learn, and I appreciate the opportunity to learn about subjects people only talk about in college. Ranging from different conceptions of morality to international law, there is a huge amount of information out there."
Before participating in a tournament, Tanya is given a topic first. For example, in evaluating her topic of standardized testing, she first brainstorms arguments to formulate cases. She then researches the topic extensively, using all materials available. According to Mr. Timmons, Tanya will research her topic for an average of about an hour a night, depending on her schoolwork. There are at least two weeks of full research before going to the next step. After completing that process, she will begin working on the case itself, which is the argument that Tanya will present at her upcoming tournaments.
"Tanya is very dedicated to her work," said Mrs. Thanawalla. "There is no time frame. She will be working however long she can."
When participating in a tournament, Tanya competes in front of a row of judges who decide based on each student’s case who won the argument.
According to Tanya, a competitor has to adapt to the judges’ style of debate and preferences when watching rounds. She said that some judges don’t want to see certain arguments, or they have a high threshold for other arguments.
"There are a lot of times where you’re going to fail, where you’re going to be criticized," Tanya said. "It’s one of the hardest things I’ve ever had to do in my life. Setting goals, meeting goals, and achieving them keeps you going, and I can honestly say that debate has been one of the greatest experiences of my high school career."
