Whitney wows the judges

Sonja Karp
NLJ Sports Reporter
 
Markie Whitney has created an impressive resumé in both Speech and Debate and in State Science competitions since she hit the high school scene as a freshman, and the senior was finishing her career in both on a roll before a global pandemic got in the way.
As a member of the class of 2020, Whitney is unsure of what the next couple of months has in store for her as a senior. At this point, there will likely be no final prom and who knows what graduation will look like.
For Whitney, the COVID-19 shutdowns have had bigger repercussions because she has achieved some lofty goals in her final year at NHS, but is losing the opportunity to see them play out.
“Markie’s goal was to qualify for the National State Speech and Debate tournament, and to qualify again for [International Science and Engineering Fair], and she was able to do both this year,” Jim Stith, speech coach and science mentor, began. “I’m just sad for her and so disappointed that she is probably not going to have the opportunity to compete at either.”
Whitney finished as first alternate to the National Speech and Debate tournament in Congress in her freshman, sophomore and junior years, so at the National Qualifier meet in Cheyenne held from Feb. 20-22, she knew this was her last chance to achieve her goal.
At the tournament, there were two three-hour rounds of Congress after which judges would determine the top two competitors to send on to the National meet.
Whitney was in the Senate and she chaired the last half of the last round. She also had the opportunity to speak on a couple of different bills during the sessions. 
“One of the bills I spoke on was a bill to give the CDC more money to be able to fight outbreaks of epidemics and pandemics,” Whitney chuckled. “I actually gave a negation speech, more on the outline of the bill than the content of it. It had great intentions, but the bill wasn’t set up to do what it wanted to do — but it’s kind of ironic given our current situation.”
Her performance in Congress was impressive enough to be named among the top two finishers, which finally gave her the nod to advance to the National Meet which is still currently scheduled to take place in early June.
“As far as we know at this point, the meet is still on,” Stith began. “However, there were many districts who had their Nat Qual meets cancelled due to COVID-19, so I’m afraid that the national meet will be canceled as well. It’s sad, but Markie got her fourth letter, she’s an Academic All-American for the second time in a row so she has a pretty impressive resumé in speech and debate and has certainly had a great run!”
Whitney also achieved her goal of qualifying for ISEF for the second time at the Wyoming State Science Fair, which was held March 1-3. The fair, which boasts competitors from more than 78 countries, was scheduled for May 10-16 in Anaheim, Calif., but it has been canceled due to the pandemic.
ISEF consists of three days of competition where participants present their individual projects to a panel of esteemed judges. Whitney, along with PJ Martin, qualified for and competed in the competition two years ago to Pittsburg, Pa. There the team was nominated for special awards but didn’t bring home any hardware.
However, Whitney took that project dealing with Muons and translated it into a more applicable project for real world use last year as she created a cooling system for solar panels which would increase their efficiency.
“Her judges at ISEF wanted to see something that was more applicable to everyday life, so her junior year consisted of taking solar panels and cooling them in certain ways to make them more efficient,” Stith explained. “She didn’t qualify at the Wyoming Science Fair but then she went to the Rapid City Science Fair and the group of professors who decide who advances to ISEF said that her project is the kind of caliber of project they wanted to send to ISEF, but since she already competed at the Wyoming State Fair, she was disqualified for it.” 
“The look on her face after hearing that information was heartbreaking.” Stith sighed. “She had a smile on her face, but when they walked away you could just see how disappointed she was. She still won her category and a ton of special awards, but you could see that she was crushed.”
The situation inspired Whitney to dig down and improve her project for her final opportunity this year. She made that happen by increasing the size of the panels she used, used sunlight rather than artificial light, she increased the fin length, and also conducted a cost analysis for how quickly one could recoup the cost of producing the system.
The results of the project this year yielded a 60% increase in efficiency for the solar panels, and judges took note of those numbers and her project as a whole. At the state science fair, Whitney won the Engineering category, achieved her goal of qualifying for ISEF, as well as winning a host of other special awards which netted her $700 in cash. 
She also qualified to compete in the Genius Olympiad, another international high school competition, scheduled for June 15-20 in Rochester, N.Y. Unfortunately, this event has also been canceled due to the coronavirus.
In addition to awards and accolades that Whitney has received for her work, the senior has also applied for a patent for her cooling technology that is currently pending with the United States Patent and Trademark Office.
“It’s sad that I can’t go, because ISEF was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity that I was fortunate to get to do a second time,” Whitney admitted. “It stinks but it’s just one of those things that happens. However, I did win the opportunity to go, so that’s really what matters at this point. I’m staying positive about it, especially with the unknown of how the school year is going to play out. I’m still crossing my fingers about [Speech] Nationals taking place, but I’d rather be healthy and safe and I realize it’s pretty possible it won’t happen.”