This February, McClintock is sending an elite, handpicked group of students to participate in a speech and debate tournament being hosted at the one and only Harvard University. Leaving February 23rd on a midnight flight, they’ll be back right on the 28th.

The tournament rules are simple enough. Teams of one or two will compete against each other in a debate where each side is given a limited amount of turns and time to make their arguments with the final say decided by a single judge.

The speech event is held in a similar fashion. A group of six contestants enter a room with one judge and that judge will listen to each of them one at a time.

“It’s a great chance to see how other teams from other states are doing in comparison to you. Like, you can be really good here in Arizona but it’s not until you make it here that you really see how good you are” senior Bob Chen said.

Bob Chen, a senior this year, went on the Harvard trip his sophomore and junior year and is getting ready to make one final trip for his senior year.

The event only requires that each school have one judge per six contestants so the participants are mainly left to their own devices. Sleeping, waking, and eating are all left to each person to do as they please, as long as they go to their respective events.

For food, the students usually go to a grocery store that is connected to the hotel they are staying at.

“It was nice” said junior Matthew Flores, “Roof collapsed… nonetheless, still a grocery store.”

During the trip two years ago, Boston had a huge snow storm that covered the whole city in snow. Although it was expected not many prepared for it. On the other hand, McClintock students were more than prepared. As soon as the wind stopped blowing, they were out there starting up a snowball fight amongst themselves.

“It was good to get your butt kicked in a good way” Flores said when asked to sum up the overall experience.