The Monmouth University Debate Hawks hosted the 4th annual Jersey Shore Invitational Debate Tournament on Nov. 23-24, 2013. Over 100 college debaters representing 11 universities participated in this NDT/CEDA sanctioned tournament, including debaters from the West Point Military Academy, Boston College, West Virginia University, and New York University. The Monmouth team won four awards at the tournament. Monica Santos and Danielle Doud (both political science majors) won a team award by making it into the playoff rounds on Sunday. Three Monmouth students also won individual speaking awards including Jessica Roberts (political science, 3rd place), Sana Rashid (chemistry, 5th place), and Ryan Kelly (political science, 6th place).
Each two person team is required to compete in six rounds of debate, three on the affirmative and three on the negative, with each debate round lasting approximately two hours. Teams that make it into the playoff rounds continued debating into Sunday evening’s championship round. The debate rounds took place in classrooms in Monmouth University’s Bey Hall and Edison Hall. Monmouth entered 10 teams including Kelly Craig and Michelle Grushko (upper division); Dan Roman and Victoria Norges (upper division); and Jessica Roberts and Ryan Kelly; Monica Santos and Danielle Doud; Sana Rashid and Amanda Kontor, Michael Hamilton and Iziah Thompson; and first time debaters Nick Whittaker and Joe Telafous, Alya Yildiz and Payal Patel, Mike Kulik and Sal Popolillo, and Angela Ryan and Caique Nascimento. Former Debate Hawks Miriam Peguero, now working at the World Bank in Washington D.C., returned to campus to help judge at the tournament. The tournament kicked off on Friday, Nov 22 with tournament registration at the Hotel Ocean Spa Resort in Long Branch.
Please contact Dr. Joseph Patten (732) 930-4300 if you are interested in joining the debate team and/or if you have any questions about the debate tournament.
