By Theresia Titus
Two students from John Paul College in Kalgoorlie have last week competed in the WA semi-final round of the nation’s prestigious debating competition from the United Nations (UN) Youth Australia on 22 August in Perth.
The Evatt Competition invites high school students across Australia to debate mock Security Council resolutions on world affairs and issues from the perspective of their assigned countries, which tested public speaking and negotiation skills.
Teams from across WA are fighting for one of the 30 spots in the state final.
Working in pairs, seven teams from JP College – consisting of Year 9 and Year 10 students – took part in the competition.
Each pair represented seven countries in the Preliminary Rounds – Indonesia, France, Tunisia, Germany, Niger, the United States of America, and Russia – with the guidance of three university students from UN Youth: President Ben Hamblin, Lucy Stronach, and Jayden Sefton.
JP College Year 9 students Alaxandrea Slade who received an award for ‘Best Negotiator’ and Mary Gough who received an award for ‘Best Speaker’ at the preliminary rounds (regional) were selected based on their performance and competed at the state semi-final.
The students are currently awaiting competition results, to be released next week.
Alaxandrea and teammate Annabelle Leonard received the award for ‘Overall Best Team’, while Faizan Kashif and Leonard McIvor attained the award for ‘Best Research in the preliminary rounds’ (regional).
“It was a great experience, and I would like to participate again,” Alaxandrea said.
Mary said the experience was “fun and amazing” as “there were so many controversial opinions”.
Principal Bradley Hall stated that JP College was “very proud” of its students who entered The Evatt Competition.
“We were very pleased by the support of the WA Branch of UN Youth Australia who made this possible by travelling to Kalgoorlie-Boulder to conduct the regional preliminary round,” Mr Hall expressed.
“[It] allows students the opportunity to look beyond their own, local circumstances. Representing France, in the Perth semi-final, meant going beyond their own life experience of regional WA and the girls responded extremely well.”
English Teacher Patricia Green, who accompanied the students to the competition to compete in the state semi-final, said the students represented JP College “extremely well”.