White Oaks Debate

WOSS debate has killed it at our recent tournaments!!!

At the UCC Pro-Am, Alice and Vivianne broke top team, breaking to finals alongside Edward and Angie. Kathryn, Ethan, Heather, and Lakshman broke to semis. Alice came 2nd speaker, Angie 4th speaker, Ethan 8th speaker, Kathryn 9th speaker, and Edward 10th speaker. This also means we had the top 3 junior speakers: Ethan, Edward, and Vivianne.

Our next tournament was at Western University. Congrats to Isabella and Daniel for breaking to finals. Also great job to Ethan for placing top speaker, and Edward 3rd speaker! Ethan and Edward were also the 1st and 2nd junior speakers, respectively.

And lastly Halton Regionals has just passed, with the teams of Kathryn and Heather (top team) and Isabella and Larry qualifying for Provincials in Ottawa. Also congrats to Alice for placing 4th speaker and Larry for placing 5th speaker of the top 5!

Hello mates, WOSS debate has achieved some ace results! 🇨🇦🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿

This past weekend, Angie Lei and Heather Li travelled to Cambridge, England to compete at the International Competition for Young Debaters. Angie and Heather competed against 96 of the world’s best young debaters and achieved amazing results. Angie and Heather broke to the Grand Final and won the ENTIRE tournament!! Additionally, Heather and Angie were the 1st and 2nd speakers overall respectively!

In addition to the amazing results abroad, there have also been major updates here in Canada. Four WOSS debaters attended the Team Canada National Tryouts in Halifax, Nova Scotia a few weeks ago and two of those debaters have been selected for the team. Angie Lei (grade 9) and Kathryn Pozios (grade 10) were selected to be members of Team Canada!

Way to go WOSS!

WOSS Debate has started 2019 off strong!! 🔥🔥

Little over a month ago, both junior and senior debaters achieved EXCELLENT results at the Queen’s University Debate Tournament. Amr Saleh and Alice Chen broke first to octo-finals, and proceeded all the way to the grand final. Ultimately, they won the ENTIRE TOURNAMENT!!! Furthermore, Angie Lei and Paul Zhang won the junior final!!! Individually, Paul was the 3rd junior speaker, Angie was the top junior speaker, Amr was the second speaker overall, and Alice was the top speaker of the tournament!

WOSS additionally attended the Hart House Debate Tournament at the University of Toronto last weekend. The teams of Amr Saleh and Alice Chen and Angie Lei and Paul Zhang broke to the quarterfinals. Angie and Paul advanced to the semi-final!! Angie and Paul were the top two junior speakers respectively. Paul placed ninth overall and Angie placed second speaker at the tournament!

At the Provincial Championship in Ottawa, Gu3’s army had a heck of a time. In addition to slaying the trivia (not really…but thank you Jack!!), debaters achieved great results in the English and Bilingual Categories. In the bilingual category, the teams of Heather Li and Kathryn Pozios and Marta Anielska and Abby Robitaille broke 1st and 2nd to the grand final respectively. Marta and Abby won a very competitive final! In the English category, Hahn Li and Meghan Conn broke second to the semi-final. They advanced to the final where they ultimately took an L. Both bilingual teams qualified for the National French Championship in Montreal. Hahn and Meghan qualified for the National Championship in Halifax. Individually, Abby, Marta, Kathryn and Heather placed as the 1st, 2nd, 3rd and 4th speakers in the bilingual category!

On a somewhat less celebratory note, Provincials was likely the last tournament for our seniors. We may or may not have shed a few tears last night (some of us more than others) and would like to take this opportunity to thank everyone we’ve encountered in the debate community over the past four years. Despite how often we complain about prep or practice, we will genuinely miss the people who made this experience so enjoyable. ❤️

Anyway, way to go WOSS!!

After months of waiting and tons of suspense, WOSS has had more amazing results!

At the National Oxford Cup Qualifier in Toronto in November, two teams represented White Oaks and achieved great results. In the senior category, Alice Chen and Kathryn Pozios narrowly missed the break, placing 9th team overall. Alice placed 9th individually. In the U15 category, Angie Lei and Heather Li broke to semifinals and ended up winning the grand final!! As a result, they will represent Canada at the Cambridge tournament in 2019!

We also achieved excellent results at the York University Tournament in November. The teams of Abby Robitaille and Isabella Li and Tianhui Yang and Marta Anielska broke to quarterfinals. Tianhui and Marta advanced to semifinals! Tianhui and Marta tied for 6th speaker in the individual results.

At the Halton Regionals, White Oaks ended 2018 on a high note. All three teams placed within the top 6, with Medha Wadhwa and Abby Robitaille placing 6th, Amr Saleh and Alice Chen placing 2nd, and Hahn Li and Meghan Conn placing 1st. Due to the school team limits, Alice and Amr and Hahn and Meghan will compete at the Provincial tournament in Ottawa in February. Individually, Amr placed 5th, Hahn placed 4th, Meghan placed 3rd, and Alice was the top speaker.

WOSS debate has had an excellent year and we are so proud of all of our members. Thank you to all of you who have liked this page and take the time to read and react to our (very late) posts. Cheers to a great year!! Get ready for more posts in 2018 - hopefully they’ll be punctual (no promises!) 💜

More success for WOSS!

Sorry for the delay, we know you've all been waiting anxiously for an update.

Three weeks ago, 12 teams represented White Oaks at the Western University High School Tournament. The teams of Marta Anielska & Tianhui Yang and Jessica Yang & Isabella Li broke to quarter-finals. Tianhui and Marta then advanced to the semi-finals!

Two weeks ago, 4 teams went to the UCC Pro-Am Tournament and achieved amazing results. Isabella Li & Elaine Jiang and Larry Liu & Paul Zhang broke to semi-finals and advanced to the grand final. Larry and Paul won the entire tournament!!! In addition, Isabella was the 10th speaker overall and Larry placed 7th. All of the seniors demonstrated great leadership and our juniors represented WOSS excellently.

Congrats to all!!

WOSS debate is starting the year off strong!

Last weekend, five teams attended the McGill British Parliamentary Tournament in Montreal and achieved amazing results. The teams of Heather Li & Grace Zhu and Alice Chen & Amr Saleh broke to semi-finals. Alice and Amr advanced to the grand final and ultimately placed second overall. Angie Lei and Paul Zhang, a grade nine team, broke first to junior finals.

Individual results were excellent as well! WOSS had four debaters in the top ten speakers and two debaters in the top five junior speakers. Paul Zhang placed third in the junior speaker standings and Angie Lei was the top junior speaker! In the overall top ten speakers, Angie Lei placed 8th, Amr Saleh placed 7th, Heather Li placed 6th and Alice Chen placed 5th.

This weekend, four teams attended the British Parliamentary Qualifier Tournament at the Toronto French School. Once again, WOSS was very successful! The team of Alice Chen and Kathryn Pozios broke to semis and made it all the way to the final. The team of Angie Lei and Heather Li won the U15 grand final! These teams have both qualified for the National Championship in Toronto at the end of November.

Individual results were also impressive! Medha Wadhwa placed 9th speaker and Abby Robitaille placed 5th speaker.

Way to go WOSS! Congratulations to all!!

*UPDATE* We are no longer accepting applications.

Hello everyone!

There are still a few places open for the White Oaks Debate Camp this summer. People are asked to register as soon as possible. The information about the camp and registration is on our website, wossdebate.weebly.com. We hope to see you there!

Two weeks ago, two teams of WOSS's junior debaters attended the Junior National Debate Championship in Calgary, Alberta. After having debated against several fierce teams from across the country, BOTH of our teams eventually made it to the semifinals, with Heather Li and Grace Zhu breaking first and Kathryn Pozios and Amy Zhang breaking second. After a victorious semifinal for Heather and Grace, the two moved onto the grand final, where they won, earning themselves the title of national champions! In terms of individual standings, Kathryn Pozios was top Ontario speaker and top speaker overall.

White Oaks is incredibly proud of the accomplishments of all of its juniors this year, from this tournament and many others where our grade 9s and 10s proved that age is but a number. Well done everyone!

This August, WOSS will be holding its annual summer debate camp, to be held at Sunningdale Public School. For more information and access to the application, visit wossdebate.weebly.com. We hope to see you there!

Last weekend, four WOSS debaters travelled all the way to St. Johns, Newfoundland and Labrador, to compete at the Senior National Debate Championships. As usual, they yielded amazing results (we never get tired of saying that!).

Abby Robitaille (grade 10) and Kathryn Pozios (grade 9), both among the youngest debaters at the tournament––Kathryn being technically part of the junior division––participated in the bilingual category. After 6 intense rounds of both prepared and impromptu debate, the two broke to a heated semifinal on the CSI and espionage, emerging victorious and making it to the grand final. In addition, Abby placed 7th individually in the bilingual division. These results are phenomenal for a debater of any age, but to have been obtained by such young debaters makes it an even greater feat! Félicitations à l'équipe de Kathryn et Abby!

In the English division, Meghan Conn (grade 11) and Hahn Li (grade 11) also achieved incredible (and interesting) results. Competing against the country's strongest debaters, Meghan and Hahn ultimately made the quarterfinal as the third breaking team, one of the best results WOSS has ever seen at the national level! Individually, Meghan placed 5th and Hahn placed 7th. Based on breaking order, the two grade 11s were the top non-graduating team, and as a result, have won a FREE trip to HAWAII in the fall to compete at a tournament as part of the 2018 Global Tourism Summit!!

In May, Kathryn will be travelling to Calgary to compete at the Junior National Debate Championships, where we are sure she will attain equally admirable results. As for the Meghan and Hahn, next stop…Hawaii!?!?

Last weekend, White Oaks Debate juniors took on two tournaments, one at Ridley College and one at Northern Secondary School and, as usual, made the rest of the team proud!

Particular congratulations to Adham El-Sherbini (grade 9), who placed 7th at the Ridley Novice Debate Tournament, and all others who gave it their all!

Also, well done to April Sui and Vinny Vemireddy (grade 10) for breaking to the semifinals at Northern, one of the more competitive tournaments for junior students, and to Larry Liu for placing 7th individually.

Way to go WOSS juniors!

Another phenomenal weekend for WOSS Debate!!

This past weekend, White Oaks debaters participated in two tournaments and did incredibly well (as usual) in both!

The team of Alice Chen and Amr Saleh travelled all the way to Oxford, England to debate at the Oxford Cup Debate Championship at the University of Oxford. After having passed the provincial and national qualifiers for the tournament, this is Alice and Amr's second time debating overseas in a year––an accomplishment many of us only dream of achieving at the ages of 15 and 16.

Moreover, following International Women's Day, 7 teams from White Oaks debated at the YorkU Women's Debate Championship and also achieved outstanding results! Particular congratulations to the team of Meghan Conn and Tianhui Yang, who broke 3rd overall and made it all the way to the grand final, and to the team of Grace Zhu and Muhadisa Ali, who made it to the semifinals. Grace and Muhadisa are both in grade 9, with this being Muhadisa's first ever debate tournament. What an amazing feat! Moreover, on the individual standings, Tianhui placed 8th and Meghan placed 6th.

A fantastic way to kick off the March break––both for the debaters whose efforts and hard work have clearly paid off, and for the remainder of the team who could not be more proud. ♥️

Enjoy the rest of your break everyone!

Another fantastic weekend for White Oaks Debate!

This weekend, five teams from WOSS debated at the Ontario Provincial Championship in Toronto, ON. Of the five, two teams (Amr Saleh and Celinda Ma, and Meghan Conn and Hahn Li) participated in the English division after having qualified from the Halton Regionals in December, and the other three (Abby Robitaille and Kathryn Pozios, Connor Zapp and Ali Syed, and Alice Chen and April Sui) participated in the bilingual division.

Particular congratulations to the teams of Meghan Conn and Hahn Li who placed 5th in the English division and Abby Robitaille and Kathryn Pozios who placed 3rd in the bilingual division. Due to their outstanding results, the two teams will be travelling to St. Johns, Newfoundland in April to debate at the national championship.

Great work everyone! What a team!

This weekend, 6 teams from White Oaks Debate competed at the Hart House High Schools 2018 Debate Tournament at the University of Toronto. With 112 teams and 224 debaters from a variety of provinces ranging from Alberta to Manitoba to Nova Scotia, WOSS attained wonderful results at one of the largest and most competitive tournaments of the season!

Particular congratulations to the teams of Jason Huang and Zain Daudi, Alice Chen and Amr Saleh, and Hahn Li and Meghan Conn, all of whom broke to an intense and philosophical quarterfinal. Also, huge round of applause to Kathryn Pozios and Amy Zhang for making it to the junior finals and giving an extraordinary performance.

For many of the senior students, this was the final tournament of their long, tiresome, and unforgettable (due to the pain, but also due to the incredible learning experience) high school debate career. We couldn't imagine a better way to say farewell! ♥️👨‍👩‍👧‍👦

Way to go WOSS!

This weekend, White Oaks Debate attended the York University High School Debate Tournament at York University and the Oxford Cup National Championship in Montreal, and achieved phenomenal results at both!

At York, a total of 6 WOSS teams participated, with three teams breaking: Tianhui Yang and Marta Anielska made it to the quarterfinals, Heather Li and Abby Robitaille made it to the semifinals, and Sarah Rana and Kathryn Pozios made it to the grand final. In terms of individual results, Marta came 5th, Tianhui 7th, and Kathryn and Heather 9th. Great work, WOSS!

Moreover, continuing on from our recent success at the Oxford Cup Provincial Championship last month, 2 WOSS teams travelled to Montreal this weekend to participate at the national championship on behalf of Ontario. Having faced debaters from British Columbia all the way to Nova Scotia, the team of Meghan Conn and Hahn Li were in the bubble room, and the team of Alice and Amr made it to the semifinals, and eventually the grand final. Due to their outstanding performance in the finals, they will be advancing to the international championship at the University of Oxford! This will be Alice and Amr's second time competing at the international level in under a year - amazing!!

Congrats to all debaters who participated at both tournaments this weekend - White Oaks is very proud!

Next stop: Oxford, England :)

This weekend, White Oaks took 10 teams, many of whom were debating at their first competition, to Thornhill for their fall debate tournament and impressed schools from all across the GTA!

In terms of team results, WOSS occupied half of the breaking teams: the teams of Larry Liu and Saad Usman, and Edward Thornton and Connor Zapp made it to the quarterfinals, while the team of Bianka Sriharan and Athena Flores Miranda made it to the semifinals. Finally, after an intense WOSS vs WOSS semifinal, the team of Celinda Ma and Linda Liu made it to the grand final.

Individually, WOSS also occupied half of the top 10 speakers, with Larry Liu placing top speaker, Bianka Sriharan 4th, Allyson Xu 7th, Athena Flores Miranda 8th, and Amy Zhang 9th.

Congratulations to every single debater who participated at the tournament; White Oaks Debate could not be more proud! ❤️

Last weekend, five White Oaks Debate teams travelled to Montreal, Quebec, to compete at the McGill University High School Debate Tournament. Bringing home another big accomplishment for our younger debaters, the team of Kathryn Pozios and Heather Li made it all the way to the junior finals! On top of that, Kathryn Pozios was 2nd junior speaker.

This weekend, five teams went to the Toronto French School to participate in the Ontario Oxford Cup Qualifier for a chance to compete at the national championships in Montreal. Every single team achieved outstanding results!

All five teams made it to the bubble rooms, with the teams of Meghan Conn and Hahn Li, Alice Chen and Amr Saleh, and Vidit Desai and Sarah Rana advancing to the semifinals. From there, the teams of Vidit and Sarah, and Amr and Alice proceeded to the grand final, thus earning the opportunity to go to Montreal.

The results on the individual level were equally amazing! Sarah Rana placed 10th speaker, Alice Chen 6th, Meghan Conn 5th, and Vidit Desai 2nd.

The top 7 teams at this tournament qualify for the national championships in Montreal, while the next 3 are selected as alternates. All 5 WOSS teams would have either outright qualified or been selected as alternates if it were not for the cap of 2 qualifying teams per school.

All in all, with 3/8 of the semifinalists, 2/4 of the finalists, 4/10 of the top speakers, and 5/5 teams accomplishing phenomenal results, White Oaks leaves yet another tournament proving that hard work really does pay off.

Next stop: back to Montreal, Quebec, for the National Oxford Cup Championships!

This long weekend, 12 White Oaks debate teams visited the University of Western Ontario for their first major university tournament of the year. The results were absolutely incredible across all grades!

Proving to everyone that age is far from a barrier to success, the grade 9 team of Kathryn Pozios and Heather Li made it all the way to the grand final! Moreover, the team of Alice Chen, grade 10, and Amr Saleh, grade 11, broke to the semifinals. The grade 12 team of Jason Huang and Zain Daudi made it to the quarterfinals.

The White Oaks team was incredibly proud to see such amazing accomplishments from its younger debaters. Individually, Grace Li placed as the top junior speaker, followed by her partner Amy Zhang as the second junior speaker.

White Oaks has successfully carried on the tradition of starting the year off with a bang! Great work WOSS!

After a long, busy, stressful and very successful year, White Oaks debate has come to a close for this school year. From England to Winnipeg, Ottawa to Montreal, we are very proud of everyone's accomplishments at every single tournament. It's our pleasure to announce that the co-presidents for next year are Jason Huang and Vidit Desai! The vice president for next year will be Sarah Rana! Good luck to you guys!

For the final accomplishment of they year, Alice Chen and Amr Saleh made it to the Finals at the International Competition for Young Debaters at Cambridge University! Alice was 7th speaker and Amr was 8th. This is absolutely incredible considering this was only our second time at this competition! Congratulations you two! Here's an article about this accomplishment: https://www.insidehalton.com/news-story/7336973-oakville-appleby-college-white-oaks-students-debate-their-way-to-the-top-5-at-international-tournaments/

Please enjoy this before/after picture in which our past presidents (Kashaf Salaheen and Ethan Strathdee) become the new ones!

Have a great summer everyone :)

On February 24-26, 8 White Oaks debaters attended English and French provincials in Ottawa. In the English division, Kashaf and Ethan were 5th team, and have therefore qualified for Nationals in Vancouver! Ethan was also 8th speaker.

There was also an article in the Oakville Beaver about the results from Hart House. Here it is:

http://www.insidehalton.com/news-story/7155998-oakville-white-oaks-debaters-are-cream-of-the-crop/

This weekend, White Oaks sent 6 teams to Hart House to participate in one of the largest tournaments of the year, and we had excellent results! For many of our debaters, this was their last university tournament, but it was an incredible way to end off. Gautier and Angad made it to quarter finals and Kashaf and Ethan made it to the grand final. With 280 debaters present, 4 of our debaters were in the top 20: Gautier was 18th, Angad was 14th, Kashaf was 2nd and Ethan was 1st. On top of this, we got to reunite with WOSS debate alumni: Denys, Joudy, and Giancarlo!!! We are extremely proud of all of our debaters!

This weekend, 5 White Oaks teams attended the Queens University High School Debate Tournament and we had amazing results!

Kashaf and Ethan made it all the way to quarters, and due to this result, have qualified for an international tournament at the University of Cambridge in February!

Our juniors, Alice and Amr, were the third junior team and have therefore qualified for the International Competition for Young Debaters at the University of Cambridge in May!

For speakers, Ethan was fourth!!!

Congratulations to everyone!

Yesterday, 4 White Oaks teams went to Abbey Park High School to participate in the Halton Regional Tournament, and had amazing results!!!

In terms of speakers, Gautier was 5th, Marium was 3rd, and Ethan was 2nd.

For teams, Vidit and Omar were 7th, Gautier and Angad were 5th, Marium and Jasmine were 2nd, and Ethan and Kashaf were 1st.

Kashaf and Ethan and Marium and Jasmine have qualified for provincials which will take place in Ottawa in February. Congratulations to everyone!

Today, five White Oaks teams went to Upper Canada College for a Pro-Am Tournament. The White Oaks teams did incredibly well, both juniors and seniors!

Alice was 3rd 'am' speaker, and Gautier and Kashaf were 4th and 5th 'pro' speakers respectively. The teams of Gautier and Alice and Kashaf and Abby were incredibly close to breaking to finals as well.

Congratulations to everyone!

Introducing... the 2016/2017 Executive Team!!!

Presidents: Kashaf Salaheen and Ethan Strathdee
Vice Presidents: Gautier Boyrie and Angad Singh
Executive Team: Jenny Hu, Wendy Wang, Marium Nur Vahed, Jasmine Waheidi, Omar M'Hiri, Ben Pry, Jason Huang, Vidit Desai, Meghan Conn, Medha Wadhwa, and Alice Chen

Kashaf Salaheen and Ethan Strathdee were featured in the Oakville Beaver! Here's the link for anyone curious:

http://www.insidehalton.com/community-story/6974441-oakville-debate-team-is-giving-community-something-to-talk-about/

At the National Oxford Cup, Kashaf and Ethan made it to quarter finals! Ethan was also 10th speaker. Congratulations to both of them!

Oakville debate team is giving community something to talk about OAKVILLE — Ethan Strathdee and Kashaf Salaheen hope to give their school — and community — something to talk about when they return from the National Oxford Cup Championships in Winnipeg taking place Nov. 17-20.

White Oaks attended the Western University Debate Tournament this weekend, and had incredible results! Omar and Vidit won the entire tournament, our first win of the year!

The team of Marium and Jasmine made it to semi-finals, while Jason and Ben, Lanxin and Arun, and Jenny and Wendy made it to quarter-finals.

Individually, Marium was 5th speaker, Jasmine was 6th, Vidit was 9th, and Zain was 10th.

It was also Mr. Guthrie's birthday, so winning was a great present for him!!!

Outstanding results, White Oaks! Keep it up!

This weekend, 4 teams from White Oaks competed at the Oxford Cup Qualifier at Havergal College. In a pool of over 100 debaters, Kashaf and Ethan broke all the way to semi-finals. Due to this outstanding team result, they have qualified for nationals which will take place in Winnipeg in 3 weeks. In terms of individual results, Ethan was 7th speaker and Kashaf was 11th. Amazing job, White Oaks!

This weekend, 5 teams went to McGill University for the first big tournament of the year. With 100 teams and 200 debaters, White Oaks achieved amazing results: Ethan and Kashaf broke all the way to semis, Alice was top junior speaker, Ethan was 9th speaker, Kashaf was 15th speaker, and Wendy and Jenny were both 16th speakers. Keep it up WOSS!

This weekend, we did a show debate for past and present staff, alumni, students and parents to celebrate WOSS' 50th anniversary! Special shout out to Mr. Guthrie, who's been teaching for 40 of those 50 years!

Happy 50th, WOSS ❤️