Jordan Council, senior, and Erin Brown, first-year, led the debate team to victory at the the National Education Debate Association (NEDA) championship, held at Fullerton College, CA on Saturday, Mar 12.
“I’ve been doing this a while, so it was a culmination to be able to get a national championship,” Council said. “Capital hasn’t won this championship since 2011 … so we felt overdue for the win.”
Council and Brown were undefeated in the preliminary competition, going on to defeat Ball State University, ID in the semi-finals, and Duquesne University, PA in the finals.
“I’m glad we got to come out with the win,” Brown said. “And getting to go to California was a really great experience because not many clubs allow you to travel so far just to compete. We got to compete against two or three California schools that we otherwise wouldn’t have faced.”
NEDA is a two-on-two system of debate that emphasizes a style closely related to that of a typical public forum.
The judges panel was composed of students randomly selected from Fullerton, to stress that anyone should be able to understand the winner’s arguments, Council said.
The NEDA spring season began in Jan. with the announcement of the topic of whether the federal government should “significantly increase the minimum wage.”
Every team prepared a response, both for and against, that they hashed out at earlier NEDA competitions. In the final round, Council and Brown argued against the wage increase, with Duquesne’s team arguing in favor.
The Capital team found out at the awards ceremony that evening that they had clinched the championship.
Council, a senior sociology, criminology, psychology triple major, reflected on his time with the university’s debate team.
“I’ve been in debate for six years. I started my junior year of high school,” Council said. “I plan to go to law school after [Capital], and debate has definitely helped me get in. It’s a resume builder … and it teaches you how to appeal to various audiences.”
While Brown is only in her second semester at Capital, she also discussed what she has learned from debate.
“I started doing debate as part of my honors [first-year seminar]. I also did mock trial in high school. The skill set is very similar, being able to speak to a crowd and being able to build a case,” Brown said. “I’m a political science major, and I’m leaning more towards the politics side, like campaigns.”
