Saturday, May 30, 2009

Congrats! Class of 2009

Today we saw the graduation of five of our debaters.  

Juan Hernandez will be attending St. Mary's University in San Antonio next year.

Jackie Rios will be attending the University of Maine.

Crystal Williams will be attending Amherst College near Boston.

Feysel Abdulkaf will be attending St. Louis University in St. Louis.

Sarah Delgado will be attending and debating for the University of North Texas.  

While each of you had your varied degrees of success in the debate rounds you all left a memorable impact on the squad.  All of you demonstrated various degrees and forms of leadership. I look forward to seeing your continued growth.

Give back when you can and remember you have been given much and much is still expected.

Mr. G

Wednesday, May 20, 2009

Law Magnet Debate Awards - Part 1: Seniors

This past Friday the seniors gathered with friends and family to celebrate their four years at the Law Magnet and to recognize each other's accomplishments.
The Debate Team has traditionally only given out one award at this ceremony - The Order of the Gavel. This award commemorates the debater who most exemplified leadership and service. The award recognizes the principle of LEGACY - leaving behind a better place than when you arrived. While the award is not technically a "senior" award, it has only been awarded to a non-Senior once. This year we had another first - the award went to two debaters: Jackie Rios and Crystal Williams.
Jackie and Crystal played a critical role in working with the novice LD debaters this year. I had to lean on them more than I normally would because of my grad school schedule. They stepped up to the task by producing five (5) very competitive and successful NLD'rs. Each of the NLD'rs broke at least at one tournament and all debated on the varsity circuit by the end of the year. Thanks to the efforts of Jackie and Crystal, the future looks bright for the LD squad.
Congrats girls! and good luck at Maine and Amherst.