Ossining Girl Takes 2nd In Debate Tourney Forced Online By COVID

OSSINING, NY — Olivia Pasquerella is usually in Manhattan on school days, because she's a sophomore at Loyola School. These days, she's at home in Ossining, finishing up her sophomore spring semester online.

A debater, she is a member of the school’s forensics team. As with nearly all educational activities across the tri-state area, debate tournaments have been canceled, including the prestigious annual New York State Forensic League tournament, which is usually held at Hofstra University in April.

At first assuming she would have to wait until next year to compete again, Pasquerella found out from some of her competitors at other high schools that they were organizing online tournaments to replace the major events that had been canceled.

“At first, I did not think I wanted to compete because I already had the mindset that my season was over, but then I figured that I could at least try one online tournament and see how it goes," she said. "Besides, it could be great practice for next year, and I really had nothing better to do besides watching Netflix."

The online tournament she picked to compete in was called the Virginia Online Congress Debate League Classic. Most competitors were from Virginia, but there were a few from New York, Pennsylvania, and California.

The 10-hour event took place over two days April 24-25.

The judges for the competition mostly included current high school juniors and seniors, and college students who have had experience in “Congress” or another debate event. That's her category.

"We debated topics such as universal basic income, developmental aid for the Northern Triangle, and free community college, and I ended up getting second place overall!" she said.

This summer, Pasquerella was planning to attend Invicta Debate Camp in Florida. Because of the pandemic, the camp will instead be held online. Also, she's keeping her fingers crossed about a summer job.

"If pools are able to open sometime this summer, I will be working as a lifeguard at a few different pools in Westchester," she told Patch.