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Catching Up & Wrapping Up 2017-18!

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Wrapping up another fantastic year of growth & success at The Hive!

Congratulations to everyone! I especially want to thank the parents for their support of their students & of the program.

I will post separately in greater detail, but here’s a glimpse of the team’s accomplishments since April:

Statewide Civics First Competition. Congrats to Adele Burke & Haven Hunt for their 2nd Place win at the out-rounds held last week in Hartford. Congrats also to Haven Hunt for her Best Speaker award.

GCI-LAU Model United Nations. Congrats to Anna Bigham for her Honorable Mention at this international conference.

Connecticut Middle School Debate League. Congrats to ALL of these young debaters!! These kids had an amazing year and racked up so many titles, I need to post separately!

My apologies for those who have contacted me recently about Summer Camp – yes, we are enrolling! Debate is my passion. Technology & administration are not. I am in the process of updating my email and responding personally. Thank you for your patience.

jenniferhunt@thehive.academy

Summer 2018 Workshops

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While the debate & MUN season hasn’t quite wrapped for us, we are excited to announce our summer workshops! More information to come. In the meantime, please mark the dates:

Session I – July 30-August 3

Session II – August 6-11

We are fortunate to have Hannah & Harper returning to run these intensive on-road and boot camp workshops for new & returning debaters! Both debate on the national (and even international) circuits, and they have extensive high school & college MUN experience, as well.

Come one or both weeks. We find that those who are able to attend both weeks maximize their development, but we understand summer schedules are challenging.

HIVE ROCKS CDA 2017-18!

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CDA State Finals 2018 – Walsh, Burke, Bigham, Ringer, Hunt, Tanzer

 

CDA State Finals 2018 – Walsh, Burke, Hunt, Bigham, Tanzer
CDA State Finals 2018 – Hunt/Tanzer

The action began slowly at first: a strong novice scrimmage in September with a new cadre of debaters and a sleepy but earnest showing in October (Burke/Snyder: 3-0). Then, The Hive turned the corner in 2018 and snagged trophies at the same rate Nor’easters hit Connecticut this year!

January:         Burke/Walsh, 5th Place Novice Team

February1:     Bigham, 5th Place Varsity Speaker

February2:     Hunt/Ringer, 5th Place Varsity Team

March:            Hunt/Tanzer, 2d Place Varsity Team; Tanzer, 2d Place Varsity Speaker

A round of applause for these State Finals Qualifiers!!!

Yesterday, our teams were on fire at the State Finals! Almost 200 of Connecticut’s best debaters gathered to debate the timely Resolution: Individuals should be paid for the use of their personal data.

Team Burke/Walsh earned 6th Place Novice Team and was one of only 6 teams who won all 3 rounds!

Team Bigham/Ringer scored awesome speaker points, with Anna Bigham earning 10th Place Varsity Speaker!

The cherry on top was the Varsity Team Hunt/Tanzer earning one of two coveted spots in the final demonstration round (only 5 teams went 3-0 in prelims!). They lost in a split, 3-2 decision, bringing home the 2nd Place Varsity Team trophy.

The kudos kept coming, with Tanzer snagging a 4th Place Varsity Speaker award, and Hunt winning 1st Place Varsity Speaker.

We slept well last night.

Seriously, congratulate any debate kid you know. It takes real bravery to “step into the ring.” These kids take a tough policy topic, build cases for affirmative and negative, and then … debate! In addition to intellect, it takes strength and resilience of mind & heart to do this not only for a single round, but to keep at it week after week, year after year.

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CDA State Finals 2018: Tanzer/Hunt (Hive, left); Volpitta/Warneryd (St. Luke’s, right)

Hive Summer Camp 2017 – Huge Success!

I cannot say enough about the talented, engaging, all-around great kids we had at camp last week!

Returning campers mentored new campers while developing their already-formidable skills. New campers jumped right in and went from zero to sixty the first day! We saw impressive risking taking from the get-go, and the results were inspiring!

unna med

Banner Week!

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We’ve had a terrific year here at The Hive, but this was a special week:

  • Team Hunt/Prevey/Valdivieso brought home a lot of bling from their first ESU Middle School Public Debate Program tournament in Brooklyn! Wish them luck at Regionals in New Jersey this May!
  • Team Hunt & Tanzer snagged a coveted 5th Place spot out of 48 qualifying teams at the State Finals hosted by the Connecticut Debate Association! The resolution was challenging and the field tough – only 5 Novice teams went 3-0 that day!

Many thanks to Harper & Hannah for spending part of their spring break from sunny California in our frozen tundra to coach & judge!

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Valdivieso/Hunt/Prevey, ESU MSPDP, March 2017

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Hunt & Tanzer, CDA State Finals 2017

Snow on the Ground; Summer on the Brain

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SAVE THE DATE: 7/31-8/4 & 8/7-8/11

Join us as we engage in lively informal and formal debate!

Enhance your public speaking, cooperation & listening skills!

Think big thoughts and ask tough questions – all in a challenging yet safe environment.

In addition to strategy and topic area discussions, we play oratory games, hold mock debates, and Model United Nations simulations.

Click here for more information: Summer Camp 2017 Save the Date.

Looking Back at ALR 2015-16

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Connecticut Debate Association * Connecticut Middle School Debate League * Collegiate Invitationals at Yale & University of Pennsylvania * Model United Nations at Yale and in NYC.

These are the places we’ve competed this year.

Yes, we win awards. Lots of them in fact. We earned 9 spots at CDA State Finals and garnered 5 top three speakers awards and 6 top three team awards over the course of six tournaments. Where we didn’t earn trophies, we often were still in the top 10!

We also made friends, shared meals, judged tournaments, held our parents’ hands when they judged, and argued <er, discussed> politics. We’ve grown as students, debaters, and as human beings living together on this tiny planet.

We learned to think through issues of national and international concern. We learned to advocate for a position. We learned to compromise for the sake of the better whole. We also learned compassion and reality by temporarily stepping into the shoes of “the other side”.