University of Kentucky Debate Tournament

When I learned that UW did not have its own collegiate policy debate team this summer, I was initially dissapointed. As a high school debater, I had hoped to continue developing my logic and argumentation skills in this richly educational activity in college. Because policy debate is a two-person research-intensive event, it would be difficult to start out doing the activity alone. However, upon discussing with some of my friends, one of them told me that it might be possible to join another school's team as a hybrid partner. Taking their advice, I reached out to several schools over the summer and eventually decided to join Western Washington University's team. They were even generous enough to let me attend their summer debate retreat. Because I had high school debate experience, I went straight into the open division at the University of Kentucky tournament and won my first ever college policy debate round! Coming from a high school with an already established debate program, starting from scratch in college taught me how to be independent and to not be afraid to reach out to others for help. I hope to continue to have a successful debate season this school year and restart the UW college policy debate team next year!