By Marin Murray.
Senior Mo Carroll advanced to the UIL State Congressional Debate competition for the second year in a row after placing first in the UIL Region XIV Congressional Debate tournament on Nov 8. The state competition will take place on Jan. 9-11.
“It’s a real testament to Mo’s ability as a competitor and as a speaker,” debate sponsor Benjamin Stephens said. “Breaking one year to state is a big deal, but breaking it two concurrent years is an even bigger deal.”
For the state contest, Mo must learn about and prepare speeches for 10 pieces of student-proposed legislation for both the preliminary round and the finals round. Despite the challenge of the preparation process, Mo is thrilled to be returning to the state competition.
“I am very excited about advancing,” Mo said. “I’m very proud of my team as well.”
The debate team won the Sweepstakes Award at the regional tournament, which goes to the team with the highest overall score. This feat was made possible as other team members took fourth, fifth, seventh and eighth place. Senior Miles Etter also earned the first alternate spot for the state competition.
“Congressional debate is important for the same reason that all speech and debate is important,” Stephens said. “I think it’s really important to recognize that young people have voices, they have ideas and they have opinions that are their own. And I think the really important thing is to help young people find those voices so they can speak up and advocate for things that are important to them.”
Each round of the competition will take anywhere from three to four hours, with each participating student giving one speech per hour and then performing cross-examination for the remainder of that hour. The speeches can be no longer than three minutes each and must be for or against the piece of legislation that student is assigned.
“Over the last two years that Mo has been competing in debate, I’ve seen a wonderful increase in her skills as she has developed as a speaker,” Stephens said. “She started off last year for the very first time, and I’ve seen her progress in every single contest that we’ve gone to this year.”
Although there are various kinds of debate competitions she participates in throughout the year, Mo feels as though this specific type of debate has especially helped grow her confidence, speaking abilities and ability to think on the spot, all of which she is ready to put to the test again at state.
“I really enjoy the atmosphere in the room and that you get to compete against other students,”
Mo said. “I’m looking forward to getting to compete against people from other parts of Texas who also have a wide amount of knowledge and practice.”
