By Rebecca Sun
Jessica Young has been a part of Collingwood school since kindergarten. Ever since she was little, Jessica has been a big fan of the literary arts, she breezed through the entirety of Harry Potter when she was in Grade One and invested her time in learning about the history and current events. Whenever the Young family travels, museum and historic sites would always be their top priority. Later on in her school career, Jessica would find herself to be interested in debate, she said that debate combines all of her passions and satiates her competitive streak.
Aside from debating, Jessica also enjoys singing, swimming, basketball, and volleyball, though she made less of a commitment to these activities and fully focused her attention on debating after Grade Eight. At school, Jessica’s favourite subjects are Mathematics and Social Studies. In fact, Jessica is known for her talent in Maths among her peers, and Social Studies is a course where she can apply her knowledge gained from travelling and debating. Not only is Jessica academically charming, but she has also established great friendships at Collingwood over the years.
To extend Jessica's debating career, she had participated in many competitions, mainly for debate, but also for writing and speech. She had also participated in and won several writing and poetry competitions across Canada, and one of her poems even got published in a book!
When asked about why she enjoys the Arts, Jessica gave an interesting answer;
“I love how there’s never a definitive answer to the questions you ask. Unlike science and math, which are both subjects that are pretty black and white, you can never really get something wrong when writing a speech or debating a point of view because it’s entirely subjective. Of course, that does open up avenues for discrimination and voting people down simply because you don’t like them, but that’s a topic for another time.”
2020, surprisingly, was her favourite year in art. The end of 2019 leading up to where she is now has been a long, bumpy ride. She thinks this was the year where she boosted her own confidence and improved dramatically compared to before. Jessica got to present on Public Speaking Day, advanced into elimination rounds at Harvard for debate, co-champed at Georgetown, which was a virtual tournament, was a finalist at the BC Summer BP tournament, and advanced further than she ever thought she would at big tournaments like Yale. She had just moved from one debate school to the debate school she is at now, and where she had struggled to find a family in her previous school, this school provided her with a group of talented brothers and sisters that supported her no matter what.
We are extremely grateful to have Jessica Young as a member of the Collingwood community, and even more excited to see her growth and future achievements in debate.
Jessica Young has been a part of Collingwood school since kindergarten. Ever since she was little, Jessica has been a big fan of the literary arts, she breezed through the entirety of Harry Potter when she was in Grade One and invested her time in learning about the history and current events. Whenever the Young family travels, museum and historic sites would always be their top priority. Later on in her school career, Jessica would find herself to be interested in debate, she said that debate combines all of her passions and satiates her competitive streak.
Aside from debating, Jessica also enjoys singing, swimming, basketball, and volleyball, though she made less of a commitment to these activities and fully focused her attention on debating after Grade Eight. At school, Jessica’s favourite subjects are Mathematics and Social Studies. In fact, Jessica is known for her talent in Maths among her peers, and Social Studies is a course where she can apply her knowledge gained from travelling and debating. Not only is Jessica academically charming, but she has also established great friendships at Collingwood over the years.
To extend Jessica's debating career, she had participated in many competitions, mainly for debate, but also for writing and speech. She had also participated in and won several writing and poetry competitions across Canada, and one of her poems even got published in a book!
When asked about why she enjoys the Arts, Jessica gave an interesting answer;
“I love how there’s never a definitive answer to the questions you ask. Unlike science and math, which are both subjects that are pretty black and white, you can never really get something wrong when writing a speech or debating a point of view because it’s entirely subjective. Of course, that does open up avenues for discrimination and voting people down simply because you don’t like them, but that’s a topic for another time.”
2020, surprisingly, was her favourite year in art. The end of 2019 leading up to where she is now has been a long, bumpy ride. She thinks this was the year where she boosted her own confidence and improved dramatically compared to before. Jessica got to present on Public Speaking Day, advanced into elimination rounds at Harvard for debate, co-champed at Georgetown, which was a virtual tournament, was a finalist at the BC Summer BP tournament, and advanced further than she ever thought she would at big tournaments like Yale. She had just moved from one debate school to the debate school she is at now, and where she had struggled to find a family in her previous school, this school provided her with a group of talented brothers and sisters that supported her no matter what.
We are extremely grateful to have Jessica Young as a member of the Collingwood community, and even more excited to see her growth and future achievements in debate.