Debate Union Is Back In Action At Cornell

October 11, 2017

In Ithaca, NY this past weekend the URDU took three brand new teams to compete in the Novice division and one returning team to compete in the Varsity division of a tournament at Cornell University.

The three novice teams learned a lot and everyone got a win, even though it was everyone’s first debate tournament ever. Two of those new debaters – Emma Sui and Bienfait Mugenza – reached the semifinal elimination round and received the 9th and 8th top speaker awards, respectively, a huge accomplishment for their first weekend competing! 

2017 Cornell Emma and Bienfait
Emma and Bienfait with Speaker Awards at Cornell Tournament

Another exciting part of this past weekend was seeing URDU President Tobi Abubakare debating on the policy topic for the first time with partner Bethany Gardner. As one of the top Varsity teams at the tournament, they reached Semifinals before being knocked out in a very close 2-1 decision. 

We’re proud of all of our excellent debaters, and we look forward to seeing these Novices and Varsity debaters have much more success as we travel on. Meliora!

2017 Cornell Group Shot
The group at Cornell