Isaiah Stephens ’25 Finishes Second Overall in Persuasive Speaking

By Thea Dunckel ’26
The Hotchkiss Record

Four members of the speech and debate team traveled to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, to compete at the World Individual Debate and Public Speaking Championships from March 30 to April 6.

Isaiah Stephens ’25, Maadhavan Prasanna ’25, Vannessa Guerra ’25, and Shaye Lee ’26 represented Hotchkiss. Maadhavan and Isaiah both competed at Worlds last year in Canberra, Australia.

The competition brings together top debaters from private high schools around the world. This year, 16 countries were represented. Students competed in four categories: parliamentary debate, impromptu speaking, interpretive reading, and prepared speech.

Impromptu speaking gives students two minutes to prepare a speech on one of three randomly assigned topics. In interpretive reading, participants read aloud a piece of prose or poetry. In prepared speech, they deliver an after-dinner speech (which focuses on light-hearted, humorous topics) or a persuasive speech (given on a serious current events issue).

Parliamentary debate uses a two-on-two format, and pairs are pitted against one another. Since Hotchkiss team members usually debate with partners of their choice, this arrangement was a new challenge. “It tested our ability to interact with somebody who had a different set of beliefs and context when it comes to the world and creating arguments,” Isaiah said.

The four teammates prepared for months leading up to the competition, practicing twice a week and honing their skills at competitions across the Northeast. In the two weeks before the competition, the debaters met every night.

All four debaters qualified for the semifinal round in at least one category. Maadhavan made it to the final round of impromptu speaking, and Isaiah reached the grand finals in the persuasive speaking category, ultimately finishing second overall with his speech on the use of prisoners as frontline workers. “The opportunity to not only advocate for those firefighters but to look into the eyes of all kinds of students and deliver this message that I am passionate about, for me it was the cherry on top of my debating career,” Isaiah said.

Head Coach David Conti has been coaching the team since he began teaching at Hotchkiss in 2012. “I enjoy talking to kids about complicated issues that we don’t often get to talk about,” he said. “If you can listen to the other side, if you know enough about what’s going on in the world, and if you can create both a logical case and logical refutations, you’ll be a great debater.”

Despite competing and placing individually, the debaters are still a team and support one another. Isaiah recalled the support of team alumnus Meilan Antonucci ’24, a finalist at last year’s conference. “He’s been a very big support system for many of us, even after he’s graduated. Calling him and being able to talk to him really helped me throughout the tournament," Isaiah said.

The debate team meets on Tuesdays and Thursdays at 6:30 p.m. All meetings are open to students who would like to learn and try out debate.

This article originally appeared in The Hotchkiss Record.