Year 10 student Annie Li was named a winner of the prestigious Harvard College World Schools Invitational tournament, competing against some of the world’s best high school debaters.
The annual tournament brings together more than 300 students from around the world to Harvard College, including national teams from USA, Canada and Mexico. The competition is adjudicated by expert debating coaches and former world champions.
“The tournament followed the ‘world schools’ debating format, which is very similar to Australian 3v3, but with eight-minute speeches and a short reply, or ‘biased adjudication’ from each team at the end. All participants compete in the Open division for the first five rounds,” Annie explained.
After seven rounds of intense competition over three days, a panel of five adjudicators unanimously voted Annie’s team as the Novice division champions against the Portuguese national team.
The tournament was very lively and tense at times. “The Portuguese team were tough competitors, but also wonderful people,” Annie said of her opposition.
Travelling to Harvard has showed Annie how large the world is.
“I used to think debating was a very Australian thing, since so many of the world’s best university debaters are from Sydney, but this competition made me realise just how many people worldwide also do the same things we do; the debating community is a lot bigger than we think.”
The opportunity to connect and meet with other debaters is one of the reasons why Annie enjoys participating in debating competitions.
“Even with our local competitions, you make so many new friends from different schools. With large, international competitions, you meet people from across the world. Getting to know adjudicators and competition organisers is also a great experience, particularly the Australian Harvard adjudicators.”
The general knowledge and argumentation skills you learn and acquire from debating is invaluable and applicable almost anywhere, Annie says.
“To quote an Australian adjudicator I met at the competition, debating teaches you how to speak and reason with logic, but also teaches you how the world works.”
During the tournament, Annie employed the strategy of ‘persistence’ that she learned at Debating Club and Archdale Debating.
“Sometimes our Archdale seasons start off rocky, or the first half of our debate is really tough, but if you stay patient, keep listening and keep improving, you can turn it around.
“Every bit of training and practice from Debating Club reaps its returns in competitions like these, so it certainly did prepare me. I am also fortunate to have immensely talented debating friends at Meriden who I’ve learned so much from.”
Year 10 students Ashley Shu, Tina Dong and Jasmine Yang have qualified for 2026 Harvard College World Schools Invitational tournament after a fantastic performance in the regional round in April.
