Ridge Speech & Debate Team Opens Summer Camp Registration

BASKING RIDGE, NJ — Ridge Forensics, the reigning NJ State Champion Speech & Debate Team, just launched registration for its annual Ridge Forensics Speech & Debate Institute (“RFSDI”), running at Ridge this July 14 through 25.

Students from any district who are entering fifth through ninth grade are welcome at one or both weeks. The Institute is taught by Ridge’s nationally-recognized staff, alongside its nationally-recognized student competitors.

This year, the Institute has added five new electives to choose from (Model Congress, Spontaneous Argumentation, Meet the Press – to name a few), offering a range of opportunities for students with varied interests.

Tuition starts at $430 per student per week. More information can be found at their website: www.ridgeforensics.com.

Ridge Speech & Debate Team Clinches Local & National Placements

The team closed out 2024 with huge success, and welcomed 2025 by excelling at both local and national competitions, including Harvard, UPenn and Stanford.

Over the weekend, Ridge won the Catholic Forensic League’s second tournament, and multiple students qualified for Grand Nationals, which take place in Chicago this Memorial Day Weekend.

Congratulations to our new qualifiers: Seniors Saketha Kedarsetty and Mannan Pandey (Duo Interpretation), Andrew Cui (Congress), Sky-Rose Jaamann (Original Oratory), Senior Matt Sherman and Junior Anya Hira (Public Forum Debate), Juniors Jia Aggarwal (Congress), Meera Shah (Lincoln Douglas Debate), Aparna Iyer and Sherry Antil (Extemporaneous
Speaking), Amulya Kollipara and Neel Tripathi (Duo Interpretation), and Sophomores Aryav
Gaddam (Lincoln Douglas Debate), Rishav Potrevu and Tulasi Bonda (Public Forum Debate),
Adalia Karda-Marok (Extemporaneous Speaking), Anoushka Jasrai and Jaina Solanki (Declamation).

Earlier in 2025, Ridge Forensics traveled to the prestigious Harvard University tournament in
Cambridge, where nearly 68 percent of the team’s competitors advanced to elimination rounds.

Seniors Celine Huang and Sky-Rose Jaamann (Original Oratory) and Junior Faye Fletcher (Informative Speaking) advanced to the Semifinal round of their events, placing them in the top 12 out of over 350 competitors in Original Oratory and 200 competitors in Informative Speaking.

Just one week prior, the team traveled to the University of Pennsylvania, where junior Sherry Antil took sixth place overall in Extemporaneous Speaking. Over 20 percent of the team’s competitors advanced to elimination rounds.

Additionally, junior Aparna Iyer, who attended the prestigious MBA Extemporaneous Round Robin in Nashville, TN, making her one of the top 16 Extemporaneous speakers in the nation.

Congratulations also go out to Varsity Public Forum duo Aadi Sateeja (junior) and Matthew Li (sophomore), who were quarterfinalists at the Stanford Invitational Online Tournament, winning a gold bid to the Tournament of Champions later this year.

To close out 2024, Ridge won first place at the Pennsbury Falcon Invitational and saw many students earn invitations to either NIETOC or TOC championship tournaments: seniors James Mathai (Original Oratory) and Aayush Bhakey (FIRE award), junior Faye Fletcher (Prose), junior Zoey Qin (Impromptu), and freshman Fabiola Johnson (Co-Champion in Lincoln Douglas Debate).

Sar Khanal with Rhea Vasanthavada were octofinalists in Public Forum at George Mason University and also received a Silver Tournament of Champions bid.

Ridge is set to close out its local competitions in the near future, with States taking place the second weekend in March. Afterwards, select students will gear up for Districts and the aforementioned championship travel tournaments.