Novice Debaters Shine For URDU at USU Debate Championships

This past weekend we attended the US Universities Debating Championship at Stanford University. While the URDU did not reach elimination rounds at this extremely competitive end-of-year competition, we did see some remarkable performances from some of our first-year novice debaters, who really showed up and stepped up for these tough debates. Additionally, an URDU alum and senior debater were recognized as excellent judges at the tournament – a big honor at the national championship.

First-year Warish Orko finished as the Top English as a Second Language Speaker in the United States, with Mike Arinarkin finishing as the third best ESL Speaker. Warish also took home the Sixth Best Novice Speaker award. As for judges, Graeme McGuire, URDU senior, and Syed Reefat Aziz, URDU alum, were both selected to judge in elimination rounds, which is a huge achievement at such a competitive tournament. 

We congratulate our hard-working first year debaters and senior and past URDUers on excellent performances. The promise our novices hold as amazing debaters is clear, and we look forward to seeing great things from them in the future! We are proud of all of our members, new and old, who shined brightly in California this weekend. On to the end of the year!