1 Family, 3 National Champs: Siblings Give Top Performances in Speech Tournament

In June, Eastview High School student Ashesh Rambachan won the national speech championship in international extemporaneous speaking.

While impressive on its own, the victory was part of another major milestone, as well.

Rambachan's accomplishment made him the third sibling in his family to win the national speech title in that category—the first time that's ever happened in the 81-year history of the National Forensic League.

Ishanaa Rambachan won in 2004, Akshar Rambachan in 2008 (both as seniors), and Ashesh in 2012 as a junior, all while attending Eastview. Ishanaa and Akshar went on to attend St. Olaf College.

"Of course they’re talented," said Eastview social studies teacher Todd Hering, who coached all three on the speech team. "But they’re also very hardworking and very much about improving.”

A Family of 'News Junkies'

In international extemporaneous speaking, each contestant draws an international current affairs topic 30 minutes before every round of competition, then writes and memorizes an informative and persuasive speech of several minutes in length within that time. Something like "Can the Greek economic crisis affect the U.S. economy?" is an example of a topic that could come up.

The category—and speech and debate in general—might be considered a natural fit for the Rambachans, considering the culture in their home growing up.

Parents Anant and Geeta Rambachan, who were born in then-British colony Trinidad, paid close attention to the news there from sources like BBC radio, Anant said. They've maintained that interest in news and international affairs, and passed it along to their children.

The family was and is "really big news junkies," said Ishanaa, who graduated from Eastview in 2004. "CNN was always on at home." Family discussions around the dinner table were about global events and current affairs.

Ishanaa said she wanted to be able to understand those topics more deeply and use them in competition, so speech was appealing.

The kids also grew up hearing their dad—a professor of religion, philosophy and Asian studies at —speak while teaching and in the community.

Team and Family Support

And so, speech has become a family affair for the Rambachans the past 12 years—attending weekend tournaments, brushing up on current affairs topics, listening to the kids' practice speeches several nights a week.

"We go through all the emotions with them," Anant said.

Each sibling worked at home, and with Hering and the Eastview speech team, on the various aspects that lead to success in the category: developing a good speaking voice, creating informative speeches in structuring them in compelling ways, and making sure they had a strong knowledge of the many potential topics they could face. 

The speech team at Eastview provided even more resources for each individual's success. All team members competing in international extemp research and share particular topics with the rest of the team. Each sibling also credited Hering with influencing their success.

"It's a really supportive environment," Ashesh said, even though everyone is competing against each other at tournaments. "Everyone has to contribute in some way."

There was also some inherent competition among the siblings, said Akshar—"always wanting to outdo each other," Ishanaa said—even though they didn't attend Eastview at the same time. But the competition was never mean-spirited; rather, the siblings supported and helped each other.

"I was [Ashesh's] biggest fan and I wanted him to win more than anything," Akshar said.

"It's been really wonderful to see them succeed," Ishanaa said. "I'm so proud of them."

The National Tournament

After an entire season of competing at weekend tournaments throughout Minnesota, the week-long national speech tournament brings on some new challenges.

"It's really weird and different," Ashesh—who had made the national tournament in his previous years as well—said of the environment there. It's competitive during the day, but then more relaxed at night when students get some down time.

And while most rounds of actual competition feel familiar, the final round brings on bright lights and an audience of hundreds of people, Ashesh said.

Hering said it's "gutwrenching" watching kids during finals.

"You watch these kids work so hard, and then it comes down to this one speech," Hering said.

For Akshar, the final speech he gave at nationals marked what he knew would be the last of his high school career.

"It was a very liberating feeling" to end his speech career with a chance to win the national title, he said. "And thankfully it worked out well."

Ishanaa called nationals "a competition of stamina." Students have to perform several speeches a day throughout the week, against other students of a strong caliber.

"Nerves get to you," she said.

The period after the final round of competition also involves "a whole lot of nervous waiting," Ashesh said. The competitors wait for several hours, until the awards ceremony at night, to find out who won in their category.

Ashesh said when he won, the first feeling that came over him was actually relief; for Ishanaa, it was disbelief.

"Then it's great," Ashesh said. "Then you're really happy."

A Greater Emphasis on Speech

Each year, the Scripps National Spelling Bee is televised on ESPN and awards more than $40,000 to the winner. Speech, for which the national tournament is untelevised and individual winners receive $5,000 scholarships, goes beyond those skills and teaches participants "how to analytically argue about the world in front of them," Akshar said.

"I just wish that there was a larger emphasis on speech and debate programs nationally," said Akshar who, while studying at St. Olaf, helped start a debate program. He is now at Northwestern University for medical school. 

"That knowledge base that we learned still guides our world views," he said, and is beneficial to educational development. "I just think that appeals to ... students who are looking for something more than what public schools have to offer."

Ishanaa said speech was "critical" to her high school experience, and she went on to use those skills at St. Olaf, in graduate school at Oxford University and now in the professional world at a Washington D.C. consulting firm.

Though Ashesh isn't sure where he wants to go to college or what he'll study there, he does have a chance this coming school year to return to nationals.

Though it's a lot of pressure, it would be a way, potentially, to one-up his older siblings.

To see Ashesh's final speech at the 2012 national tournament, watch the recording from the National Forensic League.

Follow Northfield Patch on Twitter | Like us on Facebook | Sign up for our daily newsletter