DUNWOODY, Ga. — Winning at Harvard has now become a tradition for one metro Atlanta school.
The Veritas Schools scored their latest win last week in a summer debate program -- their eighth win so far.
“To be able to walk through and to feel just the sense of people and all the cheering, it was, like, I almost cried. It was just so amazing,” Veritas student Lillian Rodriguez said.
Rodriguez and her debate partner, Evan Linton, were semifinalists, but others on their team actually won.
Veritas is a Saturday school that focuses on social sciences through debate.
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“Our scholars typically have no debate experience at all. They have the time they spend with us, then two weeks of intensives in the summertime, and then off to Harvard they go,” Veritas COO Tameka Thomas told Channel 2’s Sophia Choi.
The students competed against students from 25 other countries and came out on top, carrying on the Veritas Schools’ yearly tradition.
“I had complete faith that we were planning on winning our eighth,” Linton said.
One reason they might be such good debaters is that the school takes them to talk to movers and shakers around the globe.
But it’s their latest trip to Harvard they’re celebrating now with a welcome home they’ll never forget.
“The parents put this together. We do not have any part in putting together the airport surprise,” Thomas said.
“It was just so amazing, and it was wonderful,” Rodriguez said.
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