Braden McKavanagh
Staff writers
UIL Academic Panther teams won overall sweepstakes at District and Region levels this spring UIL season. Some students advanced to the state meet at University of Texas at Austin in May.
Our speech and debate team dominated the competition at the recent UIL State meet. Seniors Madeline Mitchell and Zachary Stewart claimed the state championship in first place for Informative and Persuasive speaking events at State.
Our debate team has become one of the best in the state, more accomplished than any other NISD school, continuing the tradition of excellence as they were also the top ranked team at Region and District for all speech and debate in the area. Mitchell and Stewart accomplished this feat along with defeating the competition at Region and District before heading to state. This event allows competitors thirty minutes to prepare for their speech topic as the event they placed in is extemporaneous speaking, competitors are not allowed to see the topic ahead of time or write a prepared speech.
Our other academic teams also did well overall at district, helping our campus to again claim the sweepstakes trophy for the 5th year in a row(perhaps longer) for NISD. Sweepstakes are determined by any team placing in the top six and earning points, the Panther UIL students who have been placing high and shared about UIL Academics, what it is and why students should consider joining.
Senior Yuki Rojas on the UIL Science team placing fourth at Region said that to prepare they use a lot of studying, videos, and online practice. Students can also spend time in club meetings and with coaches practicing on campus. Mr. Naas coaches UIL science, Mr. Davern coaches UIL Literary Criticism and Ms. Smith coaches UIL Ready writing and you can stop in and find out more with those coaches.
They also mentioned that UIL is something colleges look for on applications and state schools can grant scholarships. One downside of UIL though is how much time studying and competitions take up Yuki mentioned making a schedule and keeping track of what needs to get done.
Other UIL Panthers have been placing well in academic competitions, Zachary Stewart placed first in informative speaking at Region and Madeline Mitchell who placed second at Region in persuasive speaking qualifying for state. Congrats to all other people who participated like Cooper Purcell and Ally Chadwell. If you are looking to get more involved in academics consider joining UIL.