{"id":43963,"date":"2026-04-10T11:51:16","date_gmt":"2026-04-10T16:51:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/schools.risd.org\/BerknerHS\/?p=43963"},"modified":"2026-04-10T11:51:16","modified_gmt":"2026-04-10T16:51:16","slug":"berkner-stem-academy-shines-at-district-11-entries-advancing-to-regionals-%f0%9f%8f%86","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/schools.risd.org\/BerknerHS\/berkner-stem-academy-shines-at-district-11-entries-advancing-to-regionals-%f0%9f%8f%86\/","title":{"rendered":"Berkner STEM Academy Shines at District: 11 Entries Advancing to Regionals! \ud83c\udfc6","gt_translate_keys":[{"key":"rendered","format":"text"}]},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>We are thrilled to announce that Berkner is sending 11 entries to the UIL Regional Tournament!<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Berkner served as the host site for the UIL District Tournament. Our students showcased the incredible growth of our academic and speech programs. In just one year, our Speech &amp; Debate entries nearly doubled, jumping from 8 to the maximum allowed 15, while our Academics team grew from zero to 24 competitors!<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The Road to Regionals The following students will represent Berkner at Walnut Grove High School on April 24th\u201325th:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">\ud83c\udfad Speech &amp; Debate<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>Poetry Interpretation:<\/strong> Rida Dar (11th) \u2014 1st Place &amp; District Champion (2nd year in a row!)<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Informative Speaking:<\/strong> Lola Martone (10th) \u2014 1st Place &amp; District Champion (2nd year in a row!); Lillian Aldiwan (9th) \u2014 2nd Place; Owen Trammell (9th) \u2014 3rd Place<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Persuasive Speaking:<\/strong> Nadia Aziz (9th) \u2014 1st Place &amp; District Champion; Jefferson Tran (10th) \u2014 3rd Place<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Prose Interpretation:<\/strong> Kerod Alemu (9th) \u2014 2nd Place; Lola Martone (10th) \u2014 3rd Place<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">\ud83d\udcf0 Academics<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>Copy Editing:<\/strong> Ana Rodriguez (10th) \u2014 2nd Place; Elizabeth Lui (10th) \u2014 3rd Place<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>News Writing:<\/strong> Alyssa Schleigh (10th) \u2014 3rd Place<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>We also want to celebrate our First Alternates (4th place finishers): Maya Arredondo (Poetry), Karam Daseh (Lincoln Douglas Debate), Mesie Rada (Headline Writing), and Kerod Alemu (Editorial Writing).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>As a team, Berkner finished 4th in Overall Sweepstakes\u2014missing 3rd by a single point\u2014and proudly claimed the title of <strong>Top Overall Speech &amp; Debate Team<\/strong> for the second year in a row! Congratulations to all our hard-working Rams!<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n","protected":false,"gt_translate_keys":[{"key":"rendered","format":"html"}]},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Berkner Speech &amp; Debate and Academics dominated at the UIL District Tournament! With 11 regional qualifiers and a second consecutive &#8220;Top Overall Speech Team&#8221; title, the Rams are heading to Regionals at Walnut Grove High School on April 24th. Read more about our District Champions and record-breaking program growth!<\/p>\n","protected":false,"gt_translate_keys":[{"key":"rendered","format":"html"}]},"author":328,"featured_media":43964,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_uag_custom_page_level_css":"","site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"set","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-43963","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"uagb_featured_image_src":{"full":["https:\/\/schools.risd.org\/BerknerHS\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/11\/2026\/04\/Debate.png",500,500,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/schools.risd.org\/BerknerHS\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/11\/2026\/04\/Debate-150x150.png",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/schools.risd.org\/BerknerHS\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/11\/2026\/04\/Debate-300x300.png",300,300,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/schools.risd.org\/BerknerHS\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/11\/2026\/04\/Debate.png",500,500,false],"large":["https:\/\/schools.risd.org\/BerknerHS\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/11\/2026\/04\/Debate.png",500,500,false],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/schools.risd.org\/BerknerHS\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/11\/2026\/04\/Debate.png",500,500,false],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/schools.risd.org\/BerknerHS\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/11\/2026\/04\/Debate.png",500,500,false]},"uagb_author_info":{"display_name":"danifouser","author_link":"https:\/\/schools.risd.org\/BerknerHS\/author\/danifouser\/"},"uagb_comment_info":0,"uagb_excerpt":"Berkner Speech &amp; Debate and Academics dominated at the UIL District Tournament! With 11 regional qualifiers and a second consecutive \"Top Overall Speech Team\" title, the Rams are heading to Regionals at Walnut Grove High School on April 24th. Read more about our District Champions and record-breaking program growth!","publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-04-19 06:33:13","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"gt_translate_keys":[{"key":"link","format":"url"}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/schools.risd.org\/BerknerHS\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43963","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/schools.risd.org\/BerknerHS\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/schools.risd.org\/BerknerHS\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/schools.risd.org\/BerknerHS\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/328"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/schools.risd.org\/BerknerHS\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=43963"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/schools.risd.org\/BerknerHS\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43963\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":43965,"href":"https:\/\/schools.risd.org\/BerknerHS\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43963\/revisions\/43965"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/schools.risd.org\/BerknerHS\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/43964"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/schools.risd.org\/BerknerHS\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=43963"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/schools.risd.org\/BerknerHS\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=43963"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/schools.risd.org\/BerknerHS\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=43963"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}