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American Heritage Schools’ Record-Making Speech and Debate Team State Champions for Fourth Consecutive Year

The prestigious American Heritage Schools are pleased to announce that their Speech and Debate Team from their Broward Campus was awarded State Champions for the fourth consecutive year. The team competed at the Florida Forensic League (FFL) Varsity State Championship Tournament in Orlando, Florida.

“We are extremely proud of the Speech and Debate team, and their collective efforts in achieving State Champions once again,” said Ryan Leveque, director of speech and debate at American Heritage Schools’ Broward Campus. “The students have truly outdone themselves and to see them come together as a team has been inspiring. Winning is merely a byproduct of their passion for the activity and the joy of the experience together as a team.”

In addition to the team achieving state champions, multiple students earned individual state championships in their respective categories – Jaimee Canalejo in Humorous Interpretation and Esther Oyetunji in Original Oratory. Dynamic duo Sophie Simon and Kennedy Hack-Juman also achieved state champions in Duo Interpretation. Spencer Swickle (who received the top speaker award) and Mason Cheng (who won the fourth place speaker award) were named state champions in the Policy Debate category.

Other high-earning achievements include Sharvaa Selvan (who also earned the third place speaker award) and Ethan Roytman (who also earned the fifth place speaker award) won second place in the Public Forum Debate category. Esther Oyetunji won second place in Program Oral Interpretation and Diane Li won third place in Dramatic Interpretation. In Duo Interpretation, Laura Marberger and Jade Capella achieved third place, and Jack Radosevich and Sasha-Kay London were semifinalists. In Humorous Interpretation, Kennedy Hack-Juman won third place and Medha Balaji was a semifinalist.

In the After Dinner Speaking category, Jaimee Canalejo achieved third place and Saanya Dham achieved fourth place. Jade Capella earned fifth place in Informative Speaking, Ronak Patel earned sixth place in International Extemp, and Zoe Weissman earned seventh place in Congressional Debate.

Carly Aikens was a semifinalist in Original Oratory, Mary Abi-Karam and Evan Burkeen were semifinalists in Public Forum Debate, Sophie Simon was a semifinalist in Dramatic Interpretation, and Suriya Gadh and Veer Roy were semifinalists in Informative Speaking. Jake Zeng, Charlotte Wu, Rosa Wu, Taeyoung Kim and Akanksha Patra also were quarterfinalists in World Schools Debate.

The American Heritage Broward Speech and Debate team is coached by Ryan Leveque, Spencer Orlowski and Joele Denis.

American Heritage Schools is the No. 1 private school in Florida for nationally-recognized scholars in math competition, science fair, mock trial, moot court, and speech and debate. Alumni are notable leaders in their chosen fields who are generating positive differences in the world. American Heritage Schools is an independent, non-sectarian, co-educational, college preparatory school in South Florida serving grades Pre-K3 to 12.

About American Heritage Schools:

American Heritage Schools, founded in 1965, is a nationally-ranked private, nonsectarian, and co-educational college preparatory day school with two 40-acre campuses: the Broward Campus is located in Plantation, Florida, and the Palm Beach Campus is located in Delray Beach, Florida. Its campuses serve approximately 4,800 students in PK3 through 12th grades, and the student body represents over 60 different countries throughout the world. Approximately 70 percent of the faculty hold postgraduate degrees. American Heritage Schools is nationally and internationally accredited by the following associations: Association of Independent Schools of Florida (AISF), Middle States Association (MSA-CESS), and National Council for Private Schools. The Lower School includes advanced classes and 15 electives, and the Upper School offers over 300 courses with 138 honors classes, 28 Advanced Placement classes, and 75 fine arts classes. Pre-professional programs are offered in pre-med, pre-law, pre-engineering, biomedical engineering,business & entrepreneurship, and computer science with classes taught daily by doctors, surgeons, lawyers, judges, engineers, and computer scientists currently practicing in their fields. For 13 years, American Heritage Schools has been ranked the No. 1 high school in Florida for the highest number of National Merit Scholars, and the school is home to the No. 1 math competition team out of all private schools in the U.S. The Model UN team is top 3 in the nation, and the Speech and Debate team is in the top 1% in the nation. American Heritage Schools is ranked among the top private schools in Florida in STEM, according to Niche.

For more information about American Heritage Schools, visit its website at www.ahschool.com

Broward Campus: (954) 472-0022 ext. 1 or email admissions.broward@ahschool.com

Palm Beach Campus: (561) 495-7272 ext. 1 or email admissions.palmbeach@ahschool.com

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