Boulder City Magazine is a monthly publication full of information about Boulder City and Southern Nevada. Boulder City Magazine features the Boulder City Home Guide, a real estate guide to Boulder City and Southern Nevada.

Lessons Learned
by Jim LaBuda
Assistant Professor of Education
Nevada State College

Friends and Forensics

Darius Bravo and Andre LaBuda met in Sandra Geer’s 3rd grade class at Martha P. King Elementary. They loved their teacher, school and became the best of friends.

They cherished their friendship and built a lasting bond with Ms. Greer. Their friendship continued to flourish through 4th and 5th grade and they still often visited Ms. Greer. But middle school and high school brought barriers to their friendship, as they both headed to different schools. They continued to stay in touch, but did not have that day to day contact.

In high school both became involved in Forensics. I am not talking about the CSI forensics and the slicing and dicing of dead bodies. I am talking about the high school debate and speech contests. At these events, hundreds of well-mannered, well-dressed students gather to compete. These dedicated students generally arrive at the host school on Friday evening by 3 pm and stay until 9 pm. After a short night of sleep, they are back at the school at 8 am and continue on until 7 pm. They are well prepared for their events and monitor their own behavior while waiting hours between events. The highlight of the competition comes in the closing hour, at the awards ceremony. The coaches have the awards well organized and the students show fantastic sportsmanship as the finalists are called to the stage.

This past March, high school juniors, Darius and Andre achieved a great feat. They both won first place in their respective events at the Nevada State forensics meet, earning the right to move on to the District meet in April.

At the conclusion of the District meet, Darius and Andre were called to the stage. They each were one of the six finalists, in their respective event. Three of the finalist in each event would go to the National meet in Dallas, Texas. On stage an American Idol atmosphere existed. Three contestants would be going home and three would be going on. These two best friends are moving on to Dallas - together!

The young men are thrilled to represent their state.




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