The Bridgewater-Raritan High School Forensics Club held its annual end-of-year banquet on April 28 at Alfonso’s Trattoria in Somerville.

The team was able to celebrate the debaters’ success and thanked the current executive board members and captains for their hard work making this year successful.

At the banquet, students were allowed the opportunity to eat nice food, play music, and ultimately socialize with friends. Some of the many food items were a variety of pizza, some fine bread and butter, and penne alla vodka.

Around 70 of the 87 members of the club were able to attend this year’s banquet.

About midway through the banquet, the club’s president Venkat Subramanian gave a speech about his fun experience in the debate club and thanked the other board members, the vice president, Abhijay Edavalapati, and the secretary, Harshita Kalyanaraman for their hard work.

After the president’s speech, the award ceremony began. The awards were given in various categories recognizing specific debaters’ participation, improvement, spirit, amount of debate tournaments won, amount of tournament points (NSDA points), and best team captains in specific segments of speech and debate.

Along with awards, some of the high school seniors were recognized for their years of service and commitment to this club.

Recently, the Forensics Club held elections for the executive board for next year. Some members who ran did not get enough votes to gain board positions, but they were given the opportunity to be selected as next year’s captains. Instead of a voting process, the current board members themselves selected next year’s captains out of those who applied for that position.

After the award ceremony, the new captains were announced. There were four main segments of speech and debate that captains were selected into: Lincoln-Douglas (LD), Public Forum (PF), Congress and Parliamentary, and Speech. 

Following the banquet, the club members took some group pictures and got to socialize with one another. Some members left to go home, while others went with their friends to nearby teashops and bakeries to spend time together and enjoy desserts.

With the success of the banquet and this overall year, BRHS Forensics is motivated to reach success next year and attract more members to the club.