On Monday, Eesha Chona, grade 11, was selected to be a part of the National Speech & Debate Association’s Student Leadership Committee, which represents the needs of debate students and encourages student leaders to advocate for other association members. As a member of the committee, Chona will serve as a role model to other debate students, participate in monthly meetings and engage with social media outlets. “This is an incredible honor and responsibility for a student, especially a junior, as these students represent their peers within the national organization,” said upper school debate teacher Carol Green. Chona is the second Harker student to be named to the committee; the first was Maneesha Panja ’13.

Additionally, the upper school’s speech and debate program was recognized for its extraordinary success by being named to the National Speech & Debate Association’s Pentagon Society, thereby making it one of the top 0.1 percent high school speech and debate programs in the country. Harker earned this honor by receiving more than 500 honorary degrees during the 2013-14 school year. “Honorary degrees are earned through competitive and service related activities,” Green said. “It is not necessarily the number of students who participate but also how successful they are in their efforts.” Harker ranked 15th overall out of 3,000 nationwide member schools.