Barnhart’s Middle School Speech Participants Bring Home Six Trophies in the School’s First Entry into La Salle High School’s Invitational Speech and Debate Competition

Barnhart School participated for the first time as a team in La Salle High School’s Invitational Speech and Debate Competition Thursday evening, February 18 held in Pasadena at the high school campus and brought home six trophies in three speech events.

“The start of 2016 has brought with it new student interest in pioneering participation in local competitions,” stated Ethan Williamson, Barnhart Head of School, who also pointed to a third place win at Bosco Tech’s Mathematical Competition earlier in the month, another Barnhart first-time participation marker. “The kids are really stretching themselves to try new things and we couldn’t be more proud,” he added.

Sixteen students in the sixth through eighth grades participated last night in the speech categories of Public Forum, Impromptu, Dramatic Interpretation and Original Oratory. Six Bobcat winners included eighth graders Carolina Gutierrez-Tunstad and Oge Ogbogu who won second place and George Rounds and Jadyn Lee won fifth place in Public Forum. Keara Keelty in seventh grade received the fourth place trophy in Dramatic Interpretation. Annelise Quintero, a sixth grader, received fifth in Original Oratory. Parents cheered on their children and Mrs. Colleen Ferguson, Barnhart’s middle school English teacher, helped organize Barnhart’s participants.

Other Barnhart participants included: Eighth graders Nicholas Gersh, Calvin Katz, and Vincent Vazira; seventh graders Lily Jiang and Ryan Lee and sixth graders Justin Chang, Sreya Chilukuri, Ikenna Ogobogu, Dylan Pung and Daryn Wang.

Located in Arcadia, California, Barnhart offers a private K-8 education. Distinguishing programs of Barnhart include Spanish at all grade levels, daily physical education, the Virtues Project™ character development program, the creative writing for kids program with the Lucy Calkins’ Writer’s Workshop, a choral group, and an on-site harvest garden. The school has an early literacy emphasis, a 1:1 technology ratio and an average 12:1 student-teacher ratio. Barnhart is accredited by the California Association of Independent Schools and Western Association of Schools and Colleges.

Established in 1959 by Dr. Ethel Barnhart, Barnhart is affiliated with the non-denominational Santa Anita Church. Visit barnhartschool.org for further information or to inquire about a tour.