By OUR STAFF REPORTER
DEHRADUN, 9 Aug: The Mindspree Inter School English Debate is held every year at St Jude’s School. The event was held today and the schools that took part were Shemford Doon, Shri Ram Centennial School, St Jude’s School, St Thomas’ College, Unison World School and Wynberg Allen School. The jury consisted of Harry Sethi (President, Toastmasters, Dehradun), journalist Subhagata Bhattacharya and Rajat Shakti. The topic for debate was: “The answer to global terrorism lies in diplomacy and not aggression”. After an hour of intricate discussion on what the topic implied, the teams were armed with the arguments. The debating session was indeed a vociferous battle. The young and promising orators expressed their brilliance and unwavering conviction as they defended or opposed the topic. The arguments pursued by Daniel Imbert from St Thomas’ College brought to him the award of Best Speaker. Neal Gardner from St Jude’s School was declared the second best speaker. Serena Mann of St Thomas’ College earned the position of 3rd best speaker. The team from St Thomas’ College stood first. The second position was taken by St Jude’s School, and the team from Shri Ram Centennial School came third. Chief Guest Benjamin congratulated St Jude’s School for completing 25 years of excellence in education. He recalled he had witnessed St Jude’s School growing from infancy. Principal VR Gardner proposed the vote of thanks. Earlier, on 8 August, the three- day Inter School Annual Creative and Academic Festival, ‘Mindspree’, as part of the Silver Jubilee Celebration of St Jude’s School, got underway. Students from Doon Valley and Mussoorie participated in the fest. The festival provided a platform for students from classes IX to XII to showcase their skills in various fields, such as quizzing, debating, Arts, Science, Computers and Singing. The Chief Guest was David Hilton, Principal, Hilton’s School. Also present was RV Gardner (President, St Jude’s School and Principal, St Thomas’ College). An Inter-School Quiz Competition was held in the school’s Jonty Auditorium. The schools that participated in this year’s Quiz, Individual Art, Mega Poster, Science Project and Website Designing Contest were Cambrian Hall, Carman School, Dalanwala, Carman School, Premnagar, Convent of Jesus & Mary, Doon Blossoms, Doon Cambridge School, Hilton’s School, New Doon Blossoms, Raja Rammohan Roy Academy, Shemford Doon, Shri Ram Centennial School, St Jude’s School, St Thomas’ College, St Xavier School, Summer Valley School, The Asian School, The Presidency International School, Touch Wood School, Unison World School, Welham Boys’ School, and Wynberg Allen School The schools that made it to the elimination round of the quiz competition were Welham Boys’ School, Wynberg Allen School, St Jude’s School, Summer Valley School, Shemford Doon and The Asian School. The quiz master was K Sundriyal. Divyraj Singh Kathait, Shaswat Sharma and Prajwal Rawat from Summer Valley School won the contest. Samyak Dubey, Pratibha Mishra and Chinmey Tripathi from Shemford Doon secured the runners up spot. The judges for the Individual Art & Mega Poster Competition were Arti Thapa, Ashish Mishra and Dr RP Tewari. Students in the Mega Poster Competition depicted ‘Progress’ on canvas. St Jude’s School won the first position but being the host school, passed on the trophy to Touch Wood School, while Hilton’s School and Shri Ram Centennial School secured second and third positions, respectively. In the Individual Art Competition for Classes VI to VIII, participants depicted ‘Identity’ on canvas, while Classes IX to XII depicted ‘Creativity’. From classes VI to VIII, Eva Sharma of CJM won the first prize. Yuvika Khemka of Unison World School came second and Tanpreet Kaur of Shri Ram Centennial School was third. From classes XI to XII, Sujal Sinha of Hilton’s School was first. Aditya Gusain of The Presidency School came second and Nikita Rawat of Cambrian Hall was declared third. An Inter School Science Project Competition on the theme, ‘Invent one thing to make the world a better place’. The contest was adjudged by Rajeev Pathak, Lt Shivangi Barthwal and Dr RP Bhardwaj. Adil Khan and Balrammit Bhullar of Wynberg Allen School were declared the winners. There was tie for the second position between St Jude’s School and Convent of Jesus & Mary. Ambar Ahuja and Pratush Barthwal represented St Jude’s School. Convent of Jesus & Mary was represented by Harshita Lekhchaura and Aditi Rawat. There was another tie for the third position between Shemford Doon and St Thomas’ College. Efforts of Sujal Aggarwal and Vimal Kumar from Shemford Doon, Vansh Sharma and Aarushi Kothiyal from St Thomas’ College were also appreciated. In the Business Website Contest, the judges were Reema Khanduja, Ravi Tomar and Ruby Singh. The St Jude’s School team comprising Saransh Baniyal and Abhinav Rawat, was declared the winner. The trophy, however, went to Aryan Singh and Shaurya Mehta from Wynberg Allen School. Ananye Singhal and Saksham Chhawan from Shemford Doon were the runners up. Chief Guest D Hilton, the Principal of Hilton School, gave away the prizes to the winning teams.
