Ballot
Ballot (previously PAC-MUN and Speech and Debate) is a TAMS club dedicated to bringing Model UN, speech, debate, and political awareness to the TAMS community. We give students a stage to share their passions in TEDxtalks, connect science with politics at SciMUN, and work with UNT's Model International Organization (MIO) to organize the annual Model Arab League (MAL), and help students compete at competitions through our Speech and Debate teams. Our goal is to help students develop skills in logical thinking, public speaking, and civic discourse which will empower them to be informed and capable leaders of the future in any career.
| Topic(s) | MUN, Speech and Debate, Politics |
|---|---|
| Active Years | 2018 - Present |
| Advised | Yes |
| Advisor | Nicole De Pavia |
| Execs | President: Advay Vyas
Vice President: Tejas Rajagopal Director of Events: Akhil Krishnamurthy Director of Logistics: Abigail Ngan Director of Outreach Sophie Law |
| Event(s) | TEDxYouth @ TAMS, SciMUN |
| Website | https://ballottams.wixsite.com/tamsballot |
| Link | |
| ballot.tams@gmail.com |
Events
TEDxYouth @ TAMS
TEDxYouth @ TAMS is a TEDxYouth event hosted at TAMS.
SciMUN
SciMUN is a yearly Model United Nations conference at TAMS.
Middle Ground
Ballot regularly hosts Middle Ground GAs, in which a contentious topic is debated. Participants take a stance on the issue, and attempt to seek middle ground with the opposing side (hence the name).
Political Fair
Political Fair is an event similar to Science Fair in which participants can give presentations on political issues.
Ballot Watermelon Eating Competition
During RO's 2022 Research Royale, Ballot hosted a watermelon eating competition similar to TAMS Hottest FACES and the TCS Hot Dog Eating Competition. The event consisted of two qualifying rounds, a final round, and an exec round.
| Result | Name |
|---|---|
| Champion | Madhav Thamaran |
| Finalist | Anantha Narayanan |
| Finalist | William Flinchbaugh |
| Finalist | Marco Ricci (RA) |
| Finalist | Anish Goel |
| Ballot | 1 - 0 | Research Organization |
|---|---|---|
| Emmanuel Roy | Arianna Fa | |
| Jayanth Pandit | Shreya Amalapurapu | |
| Brandy Xie | Shreya Nair | |
| Zachary Li | Sophia Zhang |
Competitions
Central Texas MUN (CTMUN)
Fall 2022
TAMS attended CTMUN 2020 in-person at the University of Texas at Austin. The following TAMS students participated:
Winter War (Finland)
- Advay Vyas - Taavetti Laatikainen
Winter War (USSR)
- Sophie Law - Yasutoshi Nishimura
Disarmament and International Security Committee (DISEC)
- Alan Samineedi - Sierra Leone
General Assembly Plenary
- Ethan Rebello - Bulgaria
World Economic Forum
- Anvita Agarwal - Zanny Minton Beddoes
- Aneesh Mazumder - Yasutoshi Nishimura
Rebuilding Japan, 1945
- Om Kulkarni - Keizo Shibusawa
The Bandung Conference
- Abigail Ngan - Momolu Dukuly
UNHRC DATA
- Jayanth Pandit - Vietnam
- Emmanuel Roy - New Zeland
Fall 2020
The University of Texas at Austin hosted CTMUN 2020 virtually through November 6-8, 2020. The following TAMS students participated:
General Assembly Plenary
- Zhuoli Xie - France
- Amita Manjunath - Greece
UNESCO
- Saatvik Sunkavalli - Argentina (Outstanding Delegate)
The Bangladesh Awami League
- Anay Gupta - Kazi Nurruzaman
- Ted Kwee-Bintoro - William A. S. Ouderland (Outstanding Delegate)
Summer 2020
For the first time in its history, the University of Texas at Austin hosted its first virtual conference on July 21, 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The following TAMS students participated:
General Assembly
- Andrew Abraham - Bangladesh
- Joshua Joseph - Poland
- Sanjana Koratala - Republic of Korea
- Stephanie You - Russia
- Weikang (Patrick) Du - France
- Yifan Guo - Canada
- Zhuoli Xie - Mexico
Group of 20 (G20)
- Sriya Sadhu - Moon Jae-in
2020 Papal Enclave
- Yashvini Deva - Cardinal Angelo Scola
- Ted Kwee-Bintoro - Cardinal Péter Erdő (Outstanding Delegate)
- Participated under Tompkins High School
Dallas Area MUN (DAMUN)
2021
DAMUN XI occurred virtually on January 23rd, 2021. Unfortunately, TAMS did not participate this year.
2019
DAMUN X occurred on October 14th, 2019. The following TAMS students participated:
Human Rights Council
- Braiden Aaronson - Poland, HRC
- Saatvik Sunkavalli - (Outstanding Delegate)
World Health Organisation
Crisis
- Gavin Bardwell - Andrew Card
Security Council
- Aryan Agarwal - Poland, SC
Historical Security Council
- Tian Yuan - Poland, Historical SC
Arab League
- Moksh Nirvaan and Aarti Kotha - UAE
- Apsara Mitra and Jalini Balasubramaniam - Sudan
General Assembly
- Evan Carlisle - Poland
- Abhijeet Bendapudi - UAE
- Yashvini Deva - Nicaragua
2018
DAMUN X occurred on November 10, 2018.
WHO
- Ellie Rose Mattoon (Best Delegate)
- Isabella Raicu (Outstanding Delegate)
ECOSOC
- Shaurya Kumar (Best Delegate)
Ivy League Model United Nations Conference (ILMUNC)
2020
TAMS Ballot sent a delegation to ILMUNC 2020 from January 30th to February 2nd, 2020, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
Junior State of America (JSA)
Fall State 2022
On November 19th-20th, 2022, a group of 18 TAMS students - 4 seniors and 14 juniors - attended Texas JSA Fall State in Houston, Texas. The group was the biggest TAMS team to compete by far, and won nine best speaker awards. The performance placed them in second place (46 points) on the state's leaderboard, behind San Marcos HS. Award winners included:
Debate Dash
- Donovan Zhang - Debate Dash
- Advay Vyas - 2x Debate Dash
- Mahith Ravulapati - 2x Debate Dash, Quizbowl Finals
- Shreyas Kotla - 2x Debate Dash
Gubernatorial Debate
- Tejas Rajagopal - Greg Abbott
Other
- Pranathi Beeram - Thought Talk
- Zachary Li - Quizbowl Finals
Spring State 2022
A small group of juniors attended Texas JSA Spring State in Houston, Texas. Emmanuel Roy won four best speaker awards through the Debate Dash.
North Texas High School Model Arab League (NTHSMAL)
2022
TAMS Ballot hosted NTHSMAL at New Tech HS @ Coppell in Fall 2022.
2019?
Citizen Bee
Committees
Ballot Buzz
Ballot publishes the Ballot Buzz, which is a weekly newsletter featuring student-contributed articles on politics.
| Committee Heads | Years |
|---|---|
| Sua Cho | 2023-2024 |
| Prady Kandi | |
| Samhita Anipindi | 2022-2023 |
| Yousuf Khalid | |
| Ailsa Kokoricha | 2021-2022 |
Law and Ethics (formerly Mock Trial)
Law and Ethics (formerly Mock Trial) is a committee under Ballot that hopes to simulate real trials and courtroom situations. Member have the opportunity to travel to Mock Trial competitions and compete against other schools.
| Committee Heads | Years |
|---|---|
| Alexander Tandon | 2023-2024 |
| Amy Zhou | |
| Lavanya Katta | 2022-2023 |
| Paarth Jamdagneya |
Model United Nations (MUN)
Ballot has always had a long history of participating in MUN, but starting with the 2022-2023 academic year, MUN became a seperate committee under Ballot rather than part of the overall Ballot club. MUN participants roleplay as delegates from various countries and simulate the United Nations, with the hope of getting students to understand and educate themselves on world issues as well as gain leadership and communication skills.
| Committee Heads | Years |
|---|---|
| Ethan Rebello | 2023-2024 |
| Alan Samineedi | |
| Kapil Panda | |
| Aneesh Mazumder | 2022-2023 |
| Manas Navale |
Junior State of America (JSA)
JSA is an organization committed to fighting apathy and encouraging civil discourse among high schoolers, and the Ballot committee serves as the TAMS chapter. Over the course of the year, members will participate in engaging debates, eye-opening thought talks, and fun overnight state/national conventions!
| Committee Heads | Years |
|---|---|
| Zadie Guo | 2023-2024 |
| Rohit Devulapally | |
| Shreyas Kotla | |
| Ananya Mukund | 2022-2023 |
| Brandy Xie | |
| Dhiraj Bijinepally | |
| Neha Nagarajan | |
| Brandy Xie | 2021-2022 |
| Ted Kwee-Bintoro |
Shout!
Shout! is a Ballot committee dedicated to fostering political activism and participation in civic duties at TAMS. This committee aids students who wish to exercise their political rights by registering them to vote and providing transportation to the polls during national and state-wide elections. We will also be covering debates and news during elections through watch parties and this page. Shout! was absorbed into Ballot starting with the 2022-2023 academic school year.
| Committee Heads | Years |
|---|---|
| Peyton Barre | 2021-2022 |
| Temi Akinyoade | 2020-2021 |
| Mihir Khare |
Speech & Debate
We are excited to be working under Ballot this year to make speech and debate at TAMS more convenient and successful than ever before. Throughout this year, we plan to compete at tournaments (which will mainly be online the first semester due to COVID) at the local, state, and national level. While participating in speech and debate, you will learn life-long skills, such as how to research, develop logical arguments on the spot, and deliver them effectively. Because Speech and Debate includes a variety of events—from oratory, where you present and 10 minute speech about a topic of your choosing, to Public Forum, where you debate against opponents with the help of a teammate—there is a definitely an event that you will enjoy competing in, so don’t be afraid to try it out!
Speech & Debate participates in IEs, PF, LD, and more!
| Committee Heads | Years |
|---|---|
| Pranathi Beeram | 2023-2024 |
| Rishabh Mallidi | |
| Claire Xu | |
| Arham Kundi | 2022-2023 |
| Catherine Wang | |
| Jay Datla | |
| Bhavik Tadigotla | 2021-2022 |
| Anvitha Reddy | |
| Jennifer Yu | 2020-2021 |
| Saatvik Sunkavalli | |
| Aarti Kotha | |
| Sai Sarnala |
Execs
2023-2024
President: Advay Vyas
Vice President: Tejas Rajagopal
Director of Events: Akhil Krishnamurthy
Director of Logistics: Abigail Ngan
Director of Outreach: Sophie Law
2022-2023
President: Brandy Xie
Director of Competitions: Emmanuel Roy
Director of Events: Zachary Li
Director of Logistics: Jayanth Pandit
2021-2022
President: Ted Kwee-Bintoro
Director of Competitions: Audrey Hopkin
Director of Events: Daphne Sahaya
Director of Logistics: Yifan Guo
Director of Outreach: Anay Gupta
2020-2021
President: Yashvini Deva
Director of Competitions: Daniel Li
Director of Events: Sriya Sadhu
Director of Logistics: Jalini Balasubramaniam
Director of Outreach: Abi Kumar
2019-2020
Secretary General: Ellie Rose Mattoon
Speech and Debate Captain: Mayur Pabba
Director of Events: Evan Carlisle
Director of Outreach: Tara Roshan
Director of Logistics: Abhijeet Bendapudi
2018-2019
President: Cari Reinert
Competitions Coordinator: Tejas Saboo
Education Coordinator: David Yue
Speech and Debate Coordinators: Melanie Che and David Yue
Treasurer: Grace Hu