“I was looking at kids in the same position that I was in a couple of years ago, trying to learn the same arguments that I know now, and that I’m good at. It was a unique perspective to see — it was fun!” 

The Bathily siblings are something like debate royalty at SA HSLA. Silma’s older sister Aida went on to a successful debate career at Wake Forest University before graduating with an economics degree and starting grad school at Duke University, and Silma is right behind her — he’s a sophomore at Wake Forest who recently declared a major in electrical engineering. He continues to be an avid debater. 

“Debate has played a large role in my success in college, especially the problem-solving aspect, which is so useful for engineering coursework. Debate opened my mind to the idea that there are different ways to get a point across. It taught me that you can always learn more!” 

Now, it was Aminata’s turn to travel as a high school junior to one of the most prestigious competitions of the season: the Harvard National Debate Tournament. Every year, the nation’s best and brightest debaters converge on Harvard for this tournament, and SA’s debate program manager Aubrey Semple has brought SA high school (and even middle school!) scholars there for years, with consistently impressive results. 

It was just a few years ago that Silma himself had made it to the round of 64 (triple-Octafinal) in the Varsity Lincoln Douglas section, out of a contestant pool of more than 240 elite competitors. Now, returning as a mentor, he focused on helping SA scholars creatively tailor their arguments to their opponents. He gathered resources on the topic — NATO and cybersecurity — and pushed the younger scholars to think outside the box. Silma says he enjoyed learning right alongside the team; one of his favorite aspects of debate is that you can never learn enough. 

“Aminata has been doing debate for a long time, but I like to push her and her classmates to go that extra distance, to professionalize their arguments and just make themselves stand out.” 

Silma helps coach Aminata and Keziah ahead of their next round

In the Varsity Policy Debate, Aminata was a Double Octafinalist with her classmate Keziah Williams. But the stand-out moment of the tournament, at least for Silma, was seeing the impact of the supportive debate community come full circle.

“There are always mentors in debate — it is a community where people just love to learn and to support each other. There was one coach there, Daryl Burch, who when I was in high school had been one of my judges but also was a mentor to me … the first round, SA was debating his top team, and we ended up beating him! It was a great moment.”

After a successful weekend — see results below — the SA high school debaters wrapped up their season. They have summer debate camp to look forward to, with the spirit of continuous improvement that is so inherent in the debate community driving our scholars to prepare for an even more accomplished season next year. 

Now that Silma has experience on both sides of the debate table, he has some advice to offer, which is likely to be appreciated by any SA scholar: 

“Keep reading! Your books will never fail you. Always be interested. There’s always more to learn.” 

RESULTS: 

Over 100 teams representing 30 schools from 12 states participated in the Varsity Policy category at the Harvard National Debate Tournament. The students debated whether the U.S. government and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) should increase their security commitments to emerging technologies. 

Here are some notable winners from the event:  

Top Speakers (Novice) 

1st Place – Ilham Moumouni (SA Harlem East) 

2nd Place – Brielle Vasquez (SA Hudson Yards) 

3rd Place – Florence Norman (SA Harlem West) 

4th Place – Linda Lin  (SA Hudson Yards) 

5th Place – Amira Miller (Network Club) 

6th Place – Elijah Gilhuys (SA Ditmas Park) 

7th Place – Theron McKenzie (SA Ditmas Park) 

8th Place – Firdaus Ouri-Bodi (SA Harlem East) 

9th Place – Prince Adjovi (SA Harlem East) 

10th Place – Ariel Teller (Network Club) 

Top Speakers (Open) 

1st Place – Aminata Ngom (SA Harlem North Central) 

2nd Place – Saide Feliz (SA Harlem North Central) 

3rd Place – Ishmael Bajaha (SA Harlem North Central) 

4th Place – Tatiana O’Neal (SA Harlem West) 

5th Place – Rachel Balyasnaya (SA East Flatbush) 

Top Teams (Novice) 

1st Place – Ouro-Bodi-Moumouni (SA Harlem East) 

2nd Place – Gilhuys & McKenzie (SA Ditmas Park) 

3rd Place – Prince Adjovi (SA Bronx) 

4th Place – Chen & Mondal (SA Hudson Yards) 

5th Place – Vasquez & Lin (SA Hudson Yards) 

Top Teams (Open) 

1st Place – Ngom & Bajaha (SA Harlem North  Central)

2nd Place – Camara & Feliz (SA Harlem North Central) 

3rd Place – Adams & Balyasnaya (SA East Flatbush 

4th Place – Lee & Blair (SA Hudson Yards) 

5th Place – Ugoh & Pedro (SA Harlem North Central) 

Novice Policy Debate: 

• Sarah Brites and Nikita Paas (SA Hudson Yards) – Quarterfinalists
• Ayesha Adams and Rachel Balyasnaya (SA East Flatbush) – Octafinalists

Varsity Policy Debate: 

• Ryan Peters and Joseph Leiva (HSLA-Manhattan) – Octafinalists
• Aminata Bathily and Keziah Williams (SA HSLA-Manhattan) – Double-Octafinalists

By Loretta Tuider (HSLA ‘20, Columbia University ‘24)

This summer, I’ve been accepted into Columbia Engineering’s Education Experience for Undergraduates (EEU) program, which means I get to spend six weeks working alongside a professor teaching computer science to high school students. I’m so excited about the opportunity to mentor other students, and learn more about my own interests in the process. 

In high school at Success Academy, I was in the honors STEM program, so I took mechanical and electrical engineering. Through those classes I started to learn what engineering was all about — and I loved it. I’ve always been geared toward STEM, but I especially liked how engineering involves math and even more teamwork and collaboration than other STEM fields. When I was applying to college, I focused on getting into an engineering school, and was so excited by my acceptance into Columbia’s. When I started at Columbia I felt pretty prepared; in the fall I took Intro to Electrical Engineering, and it was so nice to have a background in the subject from SA.

When I learned about the EEU program, I knew I wanted to do something that connected to my coursework over the summer, rather than a regular job. I thought “Why not?” and decided to apply. Plus, I did a program called Columbia Edge through SA HSLA, which gives high schoolers the chance to take courses at Columbia, so I felt qualified and knew I’d been in the shoes of the students I’d be mentoring.

Getting accepted into the EEU program is one of my first big achievements in college, and I think it will open additional doors for me. I’m applying to be a teacher’s assistant in computer science in the fall, and the experience I gain from the EEU will be really valuable. My TAs have been so helpful, especially in computer science classes. I want to be able to help other students think critically through their work like my TAs have helped me. I started thinking about becoming a TA as I became more passionate about computer science, and this program will be the perfect preparation.

As for my future, I’m taking it one semester at a time. Based on how this experience goes this summer, I think I want to do an internship with one of the big tech companies. I feel like that’s something I’m already building toward within the scope of my education, and potentially landing that kind of internship would be a great start for a potential job offer.

For any students considering computer science or engineering, my advice would be to form a good relationship with your TAs and don’t procrastinate. You really can’t get away with starting projects last minute, and having someone to talk to or advise you is useful. And the more work you do, the more you get used to it. Computer science in particular is like learning a whole new language, but after a few projects things just started clicking in my head and I get a real sense of accomplishment when I do well on an assignment now. 

Graduates munched on pizza and basked in the spotlight while seniors — whose college acceptances are rolling in — peppered them with questions about life on campus. How long did it take you to adjust to a new routine? What’s the social life like in college? How do you stay healthy mentally? In between sharing personal stories about new jobs — Shane’s doggy daycare gig has been great, even though it means being at work at 5:30am! — and the allure of an active social life — Ananda was just elected to the executive board of her swing club — our college freshmen and sophomores shared some pearls of wisdom that made us proud.

• Hang out with different people! You don’t have to find your best friend, but you do have to find groups who can support you in different ways. There are those who are learning the same class material as you — make studying more fun by getting through it together. Spend weekends with your crazy summer experience friends. Go for runs with those three fun people from your club. 

• Everyone always says it’s important to get involved in college, but make sure you don’t get too involved! One of the best things about college is getting to explore new interests, but it’s also important not to get stressed by doing too much — otherwise you’ll lose focus and just be less healthy. 

• Of course, parties are great — but so is finding your own style when it comes to time management. How much can you go out but still focus in class? How late can you stay up studying and still make it to work on time? This looks different for different people, so don’t just do what your friends do.

While hanging out with old friends was the true highlight of the evening, seniors seemed to appreciate the advice. As current SA senior Jahniya Kilgore said, “My main goal in college is to keep my grades up, so it’s helpful to hear how all these Success kids manage their time and their classes to keep focused.”

The Class of 2024 will be able to put the advice to good use in just a few months. So far, almost half have earned acceptances, some of them to selective schools like Boston University, University of Pennsylvania, SUNY Albany, Tufts University, Temple University, Northwestern, Yale, Cornell, Wake Forest, and University of Chicago.