Troy student wins national debate championship

A Troy student on the debate team took home a win on the national level at the National Online Forensics Championship on March 27. 

Carmen Cruz, a sophomore history major from Madison, Alabama, is the vice president of Troy’s debate club. Cruz recently competed in five rounds in the National Online Forensics Championship to finish this debate season with a win. The resolution for her final debate was “Artificial intelligence will do more harm in the long run than good.” 

“I typically use a strategy of avoiding artificial intelligence rounds because it is so often talked about in the media, but I thought that, in the long run, it was an interesting thing to talk about,” Cruz said. "We get the resolutions 30 minutes before the debate so you have to learn as much about the topic as you can during those 30 minutes, and it was interesting learning some more about longevity and AI improvements than I knew about before.” 

Even though this is a process she’s gone through many times before, the added weight of the high stakes made this debate feel much more intense. It wasn’t just the final round though; the entire tournament came with a higher level of stress than she was used to. 

“I’m typically pretty nervous before and during tournaments, but I was way more nervous for this one since it was an open level tournament, which means that it invites junior varsity and varsity debaters when I am a novice,” Cruz said. 

During the debate, though, it didn’t even cross her mind that she was in the final round. She had her mind on nothing other than the topic and how to properly defend her side.  

“I was just focusing on what was happening in the moment; I didn’t even realize that it would be the final round until afterwards because there were some scheduling changes in the tournament,” Cruz said. “When I found out I won, I was just extremely excited, and I knew I needed to call my mom and my boyfriend to share the news because I knew they were waiting to hear.” 

She said she couldn’t think of a better way to put a bow on her season competing in debate. 

“This was my last tournament of my first season competing, so it was exciting to have a win at a high level to sort of round it out and have a grand finale,” Cruz said. 

Though winning is great, she said that debate means more to her than just competing in and winning competitions. The club gives her a hobby, a community and a way to sharpen her mind socially and academically. 

“I joined to have a social outlet and thought it would be interesting enough, but it just turned out to be extremely fun,” Cruz said. “It’s a great group of people, and Professor Gray is an extremely smart coach to have.  

“It’s something that sharpens my communication skills as well as my critical thinking skills, so not only is it fun to me but it has really taught me a lot of skills and made me a better student.” 

The Trojan Debate Club meets in Wallace room 336B every Wednesday from 2 to 5 p.m. and any students interested in joining can contact them at @trojan_debate on Instagram.