Neshoba Central students win second place debating Internet

Neshoba Central students win second place debating Internet

Posted

Is the Internet something people must have in their everyday lives, or is it an unnecessary luxury that citizens take for granted? 

That was the topic of a debate pitting Neshoba Central High School sophomore Leyton Turk and junior Hunter Pollack-Bavetta against Moss Point High School students Destiney Tanner and Abbigael Thomas. 

For their performance, Turk and Pollack-Bavetta claimed second place in the Debating Technology Issues category of the statewide Technology Student Association (TSA) competition held virtually this spring because of the COVID-19 pandemic. 

Turk said he grew up having debates about a variety of topics with his mother, which is what originally sparked his interest in debating.

Pollack-Bavetta said he got into debating in a similar way, but he debated with his father. Pollack-Bavetta said he was surprised the team won second place. 

“Speaking without stuttering and remembering all of our facts and getting used to speaking to a camera instead of actual people was the most challenging part of the debate,” Pollack-Bavetta said.  

“I didn’t know about the TSA competition until my teacher, Sedera Anderson, told us about it last year,” Turk said. “When I heard there was a technology debate category, I was interested.”

For the virtual debate, instead of defending one specific side, Turk and Pollack-Bavetta’s debate consisted of pros and cons, and they did not only argue about why the internet is a necessity, but they also had to argue why it is a luxury, defending both sides with each point.

Throughout the debate, Turk and Pollack-Bavetta debated the pros and cons of families in much of rural America lacking connection to the internet and why rural areas with internet connections would be a luxury. They followed up with the pros and cons of schools providing hotspots to all students.  

Their final points covered the pros and cons of small businesses receiving subsidized internet from the government.

“The biggest thing to remember is to not be nervous and be yourself,” Pollack-Bavetta said. “We stumbled a bit at the beginning of the debate, but we found our footing and nailed it at the end.”

Pollack-Bavetta plans to attend Florida State University and get a teaching degree, or become a lawyer if teaching does not work out. 

Turk said he plans on using his debating skills to attend Ole Miss and go to law school to become a lawyer in the future. He said he and Pollack-Bavetta will not be competing in the national TSA competition this summer. 

“The best part of this whole experience was preparing the debate and practicing with Hunter,” Turk said. “It was a great experience and I’m glad we won second place.”   

The Technology Student Association is a national organization of students engaged in STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) education. Turk and Pollack-Bavetta were among 13 other students at Neshoba Central who won awards during the state-level TSA conference held March 29-31 this year. 

TSA competitions include categories such as animatronics, architectural design, cybersecurity, fashion design, and technology. It spans nationwide, with high schools from throughout the nation competing to see who can create the best project out of each category.

Sedera Anderson, engineering and robotics instructor at Neshoba Central and TSA Teacher of the Year, has been teaching Turk and Pollack-Bavetta for the past year in Engineering I and II. 

“Hunter and Leyton are very knowledgeable in talking about different topics. Leyton has a great presentation presence about him,” Anderson said. “If he doesn’t know something, he will do as much research about it as he can to educate himself.” 

Anderson said Pollack-Bavetta also has a lot of confidence and is good at pulling out points that others might be afraid to bring up. 

“When you have your own opinion, it’s hard to debate both sides,” she said. “With this competition, it wasn’t just Leyton and Hunter’s opinion, they had to argue the pros and cons, and that can be very difficult.” 

To learn more about the Technology Student Association competition, visit www.tsaweb.org. 






Powered by Creative Circle Media Solutions