April 12-13 students participated  in the Region competition for UIL for Science, Debate and Journalism.

Junior Andy Zhou and senior Hanaa Irfan advanced to state for Debate. Senior Max Hall-Brown, Patrick Sim, freshman Coleman Hall-Brown, and senior Yannie Guo will be representing Science. Freshman Tori Sanborn is going to state for Journalism.

“It’s been crazy, I never thought I would make it this far,” Sanborn said. “It was such a surprise I got 3^rd place in region and I almost fell on my knees when she said my name. It was just amazing.”

Some students were practicing non-stop and using each minute they had to practice or study.

“In the few weeks leading up to competition, I was spending every free minute studying whether it was reading books about different topics or whether it was doing practice with different questions,” Max Hall-Brown said. “Even right now in class I was just studying.”

These students are determined and are doing whatever they can to improve.

“There is always room for improvement,” Zhou said. “In one of my events, The Lincoln-Douglas debate, I could improve by explaining things in a more concise manner so that the judges can understand better because the judges aren’t always debaters. They can just be common people so in order for them to relate and understand better, I have to be able to explain in a more simple and straight forward way.”

Teachers helped prepare their students the best they could to make this experience a successful one.

“We have practice rounds before and after school, and in class,” Debate teacher Ryan Hennessey said. “I give them feedback based on the practice rounds and we take them to tournaments all year long, which helps them prepare to do well at UIL.”