UCW Great Debaters Do It Again

At Tournament V, the UCW Great Debaters clinched their AA conference's JV championship and gave an impressive showing in the individual speaker awards.

Continuing a strong winning streak, the Great Debaters’ team members Shaiesha Moore and Alaina Reese won the conference team debate, held at Michele Clark Magnet School, with a unanimous vote.  Seven UCW Great Debaters placed in the top 15 for individual speaker awards with UCW students taking all of the top slots from fifth to first. The results of the speaker awards are below:

• #13 Eva Delt
• #7 Mikhal Randall
• #5: Mariah Brown
• #4: Isaac Brown
• #3: Alaina Reese
• #2: Vernon Fleming
• #1: Shaiesha Moore

Eva Delt, already having placed in the individual speaker category, took home the special honor of the Judges’ Award. This award is given to the person who shows the greatest level of integrity, decorum and respect that goes above and beyond what is expected.  In fact, Delt aided the opposing team when they struggled with understanding the debate, calming their nerves and guiding them through the process.

The next debate is the All-Conference Championship on March 25 and 26 at DePaul University’s Loop Campus.

This is the first year that the Great Debaters, from The University of Chicago Charter School Woodlawn Campus, have taken part in formal competition.  The group, who dubbed themselves the “UCW Great Debaters” in homage to the 1935 African American debate team of Wiley College who famously beat Harvard University’s championship team, has been made possible because of support from the law firm DLA Piper.