​Shawn Haq represented El Camino Real Charter High School at the national competition and fared decently. There was a total of ten Senate champers comprised of  roughly 20 students each. Each chamber was assessed by a nine-judge panel and Judges awarded rankings to the top eight of twenty competitors in the room. If a judge deemed a debater out of that top eight, a consolation score of nine was given. Well, in six of the nine instances, a judge deemed Shawn amongst the top eight. His scores amongst that cluster of judges were 6, 1, 5, 7, 8, and 4. In the end, he finished with an adjusted score of 58, which in his chamber and most others, put him among the top 40%. For a sophomore, who had never competed in debate before, it was an admirable accomplishment to take on 200 of the top Student Congress debtors in the country and to do so well. Following this part of the competition, he took part in the Impromptu gauntlet where, once again, he competed reasonably well by advancing to the 3rd Round, just two rounds shy of the Finals. Congratulations to Shawn and a special thanks to Coach Ricardo Velásquez for being so giving his time to Shawn and the rest of the team throughout the year, as well as on this journey to America’s heartland.

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