We are overjoyed to share that Conner Shih and Natalie Gao have made team history by earning the first Leland Policy bid to the TOC in many years!
It's an incredible achievement of which they should be so proud! Years of their work went into this as the technical skills, research base, and adaptation techniques required for a policy bid are extreme indeed...and are carved out of hard-won experience and extreme dedication over many seasons, as well as the ground work and team support provided in previous years and up to this moment! they had to persist through many challenges and learn to accept tough losses on the way, yet remain motivated to learn before reaching this milestone.
In speech and debate, we have to acknowledge that the work of so many others contributes to our success and if we are open to collaboration and advice, that takes us so much farther...and that a culture of support makes all the difference. we are grateful to all the inspirational policy speakers who have helped pave this path throughout Leland's decades of policy competition and to the entire circuit squad and Policy Leadership Team for expanding participation in this style of technical debate. special thanks to coaches Allen Kim and Hannah Lee and Young Park for their specialty national circuit coaching and constant availability to the team as well as the work of all policy team members in helping Conner & Natalie reach this milestone!
A Fun Fact from Mrs Northrop
FYI, Jason Sudeikis and Paul Rudd both did speech and debate at Shawnee Mission West HS in suburban Kansas City (Kansas side), 7 years apart. They had the same coach, Sally Shipley, and each of them brings her up often in interviews etc. Mrs. Shipley, the neighbor upstairs in "Ted Lasso,” is a nice reference to Sudeikis' coach in high school. Paul Rudd was a national finalist in HI in 1986, further proof that he doesn’t age. See https://www.google.com/.../local/article211878834.html...