Both students advanced to the National Final Round, performing live before an audience of more than 1,000 people at Richmond's Altria Theater and a worldwide livestream audience.
Natalia San Lucas earned second place in the nation with a speech responding to the question, "Is the United States prepared for another hurricane season?" She opened with a tongue-in-cheek pitch for the fictional "Carppuccino," a car powered by espresso shots instead of fossil fuels, before delivering her thoughtful analysis.
Watch Natalia's performance here:
https://vimeo.com/1202686401?share=copy&fl=cl&fe=ci#t=5970.674
Carter Mak finished sixth in the nation with his response to the question, "Can the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) maintain economic unity amid United States-China competition?" He immediately captured the audience's attention with the memorable opening line, "When you think of coffee, the first thing that comes to mind probably isn't poop," before launching into his speech.
Watch Carter's performance here:
https://vimeo.com/1202686401?share=copy&fl=cl&fe=ci#t=12664.167
The archived videos are expected to remain available for only a short time, so viewers are encouraged to watch these outstanding performances while they are still online.
As a team, Gabrielino Speech & Debate placed 12th overall in the nation and 7th nationally in the Speech category among approximately 2,500 schools.
"Speech & Debate doesn't have a lot of opportunities to showcase what the students actually do in competition," shared Speech & Debate Head Coach Derek Yuill. "When one of our students gets to be on the grandest stage in Speech and Debate, the National Final Round, it does give everyone around the world a chance to watch them perform."
Congratulations to Natalia, Carter, their teammates, and Coach Derek on another exceptional national showing and for representing Gabrielino High School and San Gabriel Unified School District with distinction.