Walking into the Phoenix Convention Center, where the carpeted floors muffled the sound of dozens of people from around the world, senior Kaushik Kurapati felt invigorated. Everyone was here to compete in the National Speech and Debate Tournament – but debate isn’t the only club Kurapati is a member of.
Kurapati’s many activities include being co-captain of the debate team, co-captain of the Science Olympiad and a founding member of the Computer Science Club. As co-captain of the debate team, Kurapati often helps organize events.
“We work with the teacher to create events we can schedule, and we also work with our vice presidents and everyone else in order to create a more structured debate,” Kurapati said, “So people can actually be successful at debate competitions and show that debate’s a prominent club in the school that more people should join.”
Kurapati said that as co-captain he also helps the Science Olympiad team prepare for their two yearly competitions.
“Since last year we got a new teacher,” Kurapati said, “we tried to restructure the organization by making the tests more varied and taking in feedback and trying to make the entire team better.”
Kurapati said he created the Computer Science Club to provide resources for people who are interested in computer science.
“We do this by not only preparing people for college apps, either on a computer science level or any other,” Kurapati said, “but also by helping people and doing projects related to computer science to actually impact our school.”
Kurapati said that he initially joined these clubs to explore what he could do in high school.
“When I started high school, I wanted to explore different career fields, and explore different places or different things that are really interesting to me,” Kurapati said. “So I decided the best way to do that would be through debate and all these other organizations that you could join. And I really found a deeper interest in these clubs.”
Kurapati said all of his extracurriculars have helped him with his planned major, computer science.
“A lot of my extracurriculars have a link to computer science,” Kurapati said. “For example, in debate right now, I’m coding an app that might be really helpful for judges to better understand the topics themselves. So what I saw in competitions and the Computer Science Club directly relates to computer science in college.”
But Kurapati said he hadn’t always planned to major in computer science.
“In eighth grade, I really wanted to be a doctor,” Kurapati said. “And then a couple of days in sophomore year, I wanted to be a lawyer. But in the end, I decided the most impact could be done with computer science and actually creating programs.”
Kurapati said all freshmen should try and take the year to explore their extracurricular options.
“Don’t try to get locked into something, and no matter what it is, kind of explore the options,” Kurapati said. “Then find one and excel at that, and get yourself to the highest level that you can.”
