IWOW 2008

All Participants

Sunday, March 02, 2008

bhillman@fentonpress.com • 810.766.6378

FENTON - They may have felt nervous but the youngsters kept it together to win their debates as well as substantial scholarship funds.

Sixteen students competed Feb. 23 in the Tri-County Area League of Debate Clubs at Lake Fenton High School.

When all was said - and challenged - the champion and winner of $3,000 in scholarship money was Flannery Wise of Rose Township, a seventh-grader at Schmidt Middle School in Fenton.

"I was just shaking, but there's a podium in front of us so they (judges) can't see," Flannery, 12, said.

This was the first try in the middle school competition for the daughter of Gary Wise and Rhonda Huie. Flannery said she's surprised she emerged a champion.

"I finished the speech I won with the night before at 10 o'clock," she said.

Looking back, it was hard work and a lot of practice. "I usually stand in front of the mirror" to rehearse, she said.

Runner-up and last year's champion was Leenah Shah, an eighth-grader in the Hartland School District. Leenah won a $2,000 scholarship.

Two third-place winners who took home $1,000 each were Olivia Nagel and Britney Constantini, students at St. John School in Fenton.

Four final winners of $500: Madeline Frasik and Corinne Brown, Lake Fenton sixth-graders; Erin Graham, a Linden seventh-grader; and Brad Fleckenstein, a Lake Fenton eighth-grader.

Tony Brown, the club's vice president, said $24,000 in scholarships have been awarded in three years. He said the event - as well as the competition - improves each year.

"The kids keep raising the bar," Brown said. "They take it to the next level to keep it competitive.

Flannery said the most difficult topic she had to debate that day was taking the stand that people don't deserve basic human rights.

"That was really hard," she said.

She credits her success to her debate coach Steve Shelton, a Fenton attorney.

It likely helps, though, that arguing comes easy for Flannery.

"My mom says I can argue with a wall," she said.

"She's always been very comfortable around people and well spoken," said her mother, Rhonda Huie. "I think it comes naturally to her."

Flannery said she plans to use her scholarship winnings toward studies in either creative writing or marine biology. Meanwhile, she competes with the Hartland figure skating team, lives on a horse farm and is working to get her first book of fiction published.

"It's about an outspoken schoolgirl and her adventures," Flannery said.

Most of those who judged the competition are judges at their day jobs, as well, including Duncan Beagle, David Newblatt, Michael Theile, Jennifer Barkey and Mark McCabe. Attorney John Tucker and debate club director Jeff Bean also sat on the judge's panel.

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