Award winners, Elizabeth Miller and Shekinah Kahongo (Photo by professor Sheila Ritchie)  

The debate team returns home with two awards under its belt after their wins at Lee College. 

The debate team attended a tournament at Lee College. This Tournament turned out to be a success with two students who went to the quarterfinals in the Junior Varsity division.  

Schools at the tournament included: Southern Methodist University, Louisiana State University- Shreveport, Oklahoma Baptist University, and other Louisiana, Arkansas, Alabama and Texas schools. 

The two students, Elizabeth Miller and Shekinah Kahongo, won the awards of the International Public Debate Association. 

They tied for fourth in the tournament and Shekinah Kahongo earned the fourth place speaker award. 

“I was really excited about winning,” Elizabeth Miller, junior English major from Allen, said. “This was the first time I’d made it to the quarterfinals, and it was especially exciting because that was my first tournament in the JV division.” 

The wins gave the team points toward season awards at the International Public Debate Association National Tournament and conference at Tennessee Tech University for March, 2020. 

The team prepares for their debates twice a week. Where they learn theory, practice writing cases, and run full debate rounds with each other. In addition, they are expected to stay up to date with the news and current events. 

Sheila Ritchie, director of debate and associate professor in the department of communication, took over the team in the fall of 2018. She retarted the program with a new style of debate.

“We had to learn everything from the ground up and got pretty beat up for several tournaments. We were learning and that takes some growing pains, but at the end of last season, we still ended up with the 11th ranked Novice team in the nation out of 163 schools.” said professor Ritchie. 

With a total of six tournaments in the fall semester and six tournaments in the Spring; Ritchie said the team is on the right track and will continue to grow and improve. 

The debate team will host their first collegiate tournament in February. 

“We work hard to represent ACU in the best way we can and we are excited to bring this event to the campus,” Ritchie said.