On Wednesday, February 5, the Germantown Academy Upper School Debate Team competed in the Southeastern Pennsylvania Debate League (SPDL) semifinals at William Tennent High School where 13 GA students advanced to the SPDL finals on Wednesday, February 12 at Council Rock North High School.

In total, 12 schools competed in the semifinals and there were 124 entries.

After a series of nerve-wracking single elimination rounds, GA senior Anthony Hu '20 emerged as one of four Lincoln-Douglas debaters who will compete in the finals. He will be joined by Helen Wu '21 and Priya Anand '21, who emerged as one of the top pairs in Public Forum debate and will also compete in finals. 

GA's Speech Competitors also had a terrific night. Natalie Schildt '21 will move on to finals to compete in Extemporaneous Speaking, J. Fassler ‘20 will move on in Oral Interpretation, and Finn Lukens ‘21 is a finalist in Congress. Rachel Roth ‘21 is a finalist in Dramatic Performance, and both Atharv Awasthi ‘22 and Grace Brogan ‘21 are finalists in Declamation. 

GA was led by captains Sabreen Mohammed '20 and Alice Su '20, who, along with Rebecca Zaki '22 and Debbie Rotibi '22, made it to the final rounds this year in the Policy Debate. 

"We won’t know the results of finals until the Southeastern Pennsylvania Debate League Awards Banquet in April, but the team is thrilled that their hard work has brought them this far and is eager to use this momentum to propel them to qualifiers for State Championships," said Upper School History Teacher and Debate Club Advisor Janelle Collett.