Small Stuart Forensics Team Comes Up Big at NJ State Speech and Debate Championships

    PRINCETON, NJ, March 22, 2015 /24-7PressRelease/ -- Three young women at Stuart Country Day School of the Sacred Heart, the all-girls K-12 school, won awards at the NJ Speech and Debate League State Championships held at The College of New Jersey on Friday and Saturday, March 13-14. Julia Weingaertner won the NJ State Championship in the Prose Reading category. Madeleine Lapuerta was second in the state in two categories, both Prose Reading and Humorous Interpretation of Literature (HI), and teammate Rosalind Stengle advanced to semi-final competition in HI. Julia Weingaertner also advanced to semi-finals in the Dramatic Interpretation of Literature category. The three Stuart juniors and their coach, History Teacher Kate Barnhardt, battled their way through two very long days of competition against much larger teams from around the state at TCNJ this past weekend.

Stuart's Forensics Team has shown a great deal of growth this year. Sophomore Claudary Jones took a second place in Novice Finals in Dramatic Interpretation of Literature at the Ridge Invitational at Basking Ridge in January, and novice freshmen Alexandra Bullen-Smith and Rajitha Penaka unveiled a brand new Duo Interpretation of Literature to take sixth place at the Bridgewater-Raritan tournament in February.

The Stuart team will be competing at the New Jersey District Tournament this coming weekend, March 20-21, at The Delbarton School, the final state competition of the year. Julia Weingaertner will compete in Dramatic Interpretation, Madeleine Lapuerta and Rosalind Stengle will compete in Humorous Interpretation and Duo Interpretation of Literature. The top three competitors in each category will advance to the NSDA national competition in Dallas, Texas.

In addition, Julia, Madeleine and Rosalind have all qualified to compete at the NCFL Grand National Tournament in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida, May 22-24, 2015. To attend The Grand National Tournament is a prestigious honor, and each qualifying spot is hotly contested in a series of six tournaments throughout the state. NCFL (National Catholic Forensics League) is second in size only to the National Speech and Debate Association (NDSA). Many large New Jersey public schools including, Princeton High School, Ridge, Montville, Millburn and Randolph High Schools, also compete in the Newark CFL (Catholic Forensics League) tournaments to vie for a chance to participate in The Grand National Tournament.

As the state champion in Prose, Julia Weingaertner will receive a Governor's Award at the Governor's Awards in Art Education event on May 28, 2015 at the Patriot's Theatre in the War Memorial.

Stuart Country Day School is a girls' school that teaches girls the enormous potential and power in being a girl. Co-ed schools simply cannot teach this. At an all girls school a girl can find her voice and uncover her capabilities and potential in ways that have nothing to do with how she looks or whom she dates. All girls schools create a culture of achievement, discovery and peer leadership.

Contact: Risa Engel
Office: 609-921-6105
http://www.stuartschool.org/

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