Troy debate team builds confidence

Troy University's debate team is finding success in online competitions while helping students develop skills in public speaking, critical thinking and communication.

The team recently participated in the Sunshine Series and National Online Forensics tournaments, competing against students from other schools in individual debate rounds.

During the NOF tournament, three of the team's four competitors advanced past the preliminary rounds. Ashton Harris went on to win gold, while Lulu Luna and Annabella Pineda earned silver medals. The team also received a sweepstakes award for its overall performance across multiple competition categories.

"We're trying to get our debate team more prominent by getting more wins and getting more funds, so that we can actually do more in-person debate tournaments," said Harris, a junior biomedical science major from Columbus, Georgia.

The team primarily competes in online tournaments, where students are given 30 minutes to prepare an argument before participating in a 30-minute debate round. Competitors must respond to their opponents while defending their own positions.

Students debate a variety of topics, ranging from political issues to pop culture to factual questions.

"My favorite topics to debate are fact topics,” said Pineda, a freshman political science major from Enterprise, Alabama. “Things like whether we should stop spending money on space exploration are factual rather than whether pancakes are better than waffles, which is more opinion-based."

For students, the experience also extends beyond competition.

Members said debate helped develop their critical thinking, speech and improvisation skills.

"One of the reasons why I think debate's important is because it helps with speech, critical thinking skills and also just being able to improvise," Harris said.

Participating in debate also helped students become more confident when speaking with others and given them opportunities to learn through research and conversations with competitors.

"I always felt that when I was arguing or when I was having a critical conversation with somebody, I thought faster and better than I did when I was talking on my own," said Luna, a freshman hospitality, tourism and event management major from Enterprise, Alabama.

Pineda said one of the biggest skills she gained is mental stamina, especially when competing for several hours.

"Debate takes a lot of energy and mental capacity, so when you're debating for hours at a time, you have to stay in a positive headspace until the debate is over or you'll get burned out," Pineda said.

Although students may feel intimidated by the idea of debating, team members said previous experience is not necessary to participate.

"You don't have to be any good at it," Luna said. "Honestly, you don't even have to come to debate club and debate. We have lots of regular people and members of our club who show up just to judge."

The team welcomes students interested in listening, participating in conversations or learning about different perspectives.

The debate team meets Wednesdays from 2 to 5 p.m. in Patterson Hall, Room 303. Students are welcome to attend meetings, even if they are only interested in learning more.

For more information, students can follow the debate team on Instagram at @trojan_debate.