What is your favorite part of debate?

• “The greatest aspect of debate is the research that goes into it. No other activity will bend your mind with ways to spin a certain argument to a judge, or require you to read thousands of academic articles.”

If you could fix any problem in the world, what would you fix?

• “The impending environmental catastrophe. The shortage of food that many already have due to increasing temperatures and migration patterns of animals is unacceptable. By 2025 nearly 1.8 billion people will have trouble accessing clean water because of our rapid depletion of freshwater reserves. Not to mention the recent report by the IPCC that climate change will have severe impacts by 2030 if nothing is done to fix it. All of these factors make me want to just invest all my time and energy into developing renewable technology and environmentally sustainable solutions to a lot of the worlds problems”

What is one thing you’re looking forward to during November?

• “Competing at the national circuit tournament KCKCC. Competitors from a variety of states will be headed to Kansas City to compete for a bid to the tournament of champions. I am excited to debate against these schools.”

If you could go back in time, what is something you would change?

• “My investment of time into this activity. Debate is a rare activity in which research and learning is actually fun. I would exponentially increase the amount of time I spent working on debate at home, and the amount of time I spent after school discussing various arguments with our excellent coaching staff.“

How do you feel about your overall debate seasons here in high school?

• “My debate seasons are something I would not trade for the world. Well okay maybe I would trade it for a couple billion dollars and a solution to climate change, but in all seriousness this activity has been massively beneficial to my ability to speak in public, critically think, and research. On top of that I have precious memories about van rides to tournaments, ridiculously funny stories about debate rounds, and a group of friends, including my coaches, that made me a better person over the course of my four years of competing for Washburn Rural debate.”