By Vivian Dyer.
Four debate and journalism students advanced to regionals after competing at Wylie in the academic UIL 5A district competition on April 6. The regional meet will take place on Saturday, April 27 at Texas Tech University.
Senior Barrett Roberson competed in five events advancing to region in three.
“I competed in copy editing, news writing, feature writing, editorial writing and headline,” Roberson said.
The UIL academic competition lasted two days with all journalism events occurring on Saturday. Debate events were on both Friday and Saturday.
“I competed over two days,” senior Mo Carroll said. “The first day for extemporaneous speaking, the second day, I went in and sat down to take a test for current events.”
Because of advancing to regionals in extemporaneous speaking and current events, Carroll says she has been practicing more to prepare for the upcoming competition.
“I’m going to continue reading news sites trying to stay up to date,” Carroll said. “I’m going to improve my essay writing skills to make sure that I have a prepared structure in my head.”
Even with being so successful in the UIL season, there are still challenges throughout competing according to Carroll.
“My biggest challenge this year is probably time management,” Carroll said. “Writing speeches for congress last semester and trying to stay up to date on news working that into all of my other classwork that I have is that I have to try not to overwork myself.”
The regional meet will take place April 26-27 consisting of eight districts and over 40 schools competing at Texas Tech University in Lubbock. “There are a lot of people doing the exact same thing you are at the same time,” Roberson said. “You want to feel like you’re doing th