Time for Nationals!

The spring brings with it the end of the season national tournaments for the Trojan Debate Squad. Nine USC students will be competing in national competitions in the coming weeks.

   • The National Debate Tournament, hosted by The Catholic University of America, in Washington D.C, will be held on April 2-5. USC teams earned the first and second regional qualifying bids to nationals and marked the 41st consecutive seasons in which Trojans have competed at the NDT. Political Science majors Marissa Silber ('04) and Daniel Wolnerman ('04) again qualified as the top seed from the California district, matching their record from last year of an undefeated performance. Melinda McVay ('05) and Alex Iftimie ('07) finished strong as the second regional qualifier. This performance allows USC to extend its own record for most seasons competing (53) and most teams competing (85) in the history of the NDT.

   • The American Forensics Association National Individual Events Tournament (AFA-NIET) will be held April 2-5 at nearby Cal State Long Beach. USC students qualified six different events for this season. Engineering/Theatre Julianne Gale ('07) from Massachusetts qualified in two events, Program Oral Interpretation and Persuasion. Megan Low ('06), a Political Science major from northern California, qualified in Communication Analysis. Communication major Sona Movsesian ('05) qualified in Poetry Interpretation. Finally, a Music/Communication major from Oregon, Andrew Abaria ('05) qualified in three events for the AFA-NIET, including Persuasion, Informative, and After Dinner Speaking. The squad is excited for all of these students in their first trip to the AFA-NIET.

   • USC alum Becky Opsata will be busy hosting the National Parliamentary Debate Association national tournament at Cal State Northridge April 7-11. Megan Low and Andreas Meyer ('06), a political science major from Newbury Park, California will be representing USC at the NPDA.

The Trojans are excited about the opportunity for a strong finish to another quality season.