Photo by Sarah Holland/College of Humanities and Social Sciences
Two first-year 亚洲AV students brought home not one but two national debate titles in a pair of March competitions.
Nathan Stolzenfeld, who is a major at the , and Global Affairs student Megan Rodak finished their听first collegiate听season as the top novice duo in the country after securing victories at the American Debate Association National Championship at Georgetown University听and the听Cross Examination听Debate Association JV/Novice National Championship at West Virginia University.听
In total, they won six of the nine tournaments that they attended this season. Stolzenfeld was voted Novice of the Year at the American Debate Association National Championship.听
The debate style Stolzenfeld and Rodak compete in is 鈥減olicy debate,鈥 said longtime Mason director of debate Warren Decker. 鈥淚t鈥檚 well known to be the most difficult debate event to excel at even with four years of high school policy debate experience under your belt, let alone pick up during college.鈥澨听
This year鈥檚 topic of debate was 鈥淟egal Personhood鈥: 鈥淭he United State should vest legal rights and/or duties in one of more of the following: artificial intelligence, nature, nonhuman animal species.鈥 It was at topic that听no one on the debate team had prior knowledge of researching or discussing.听
The team听spent听the summer researching, compiling, and synthesizing evidence from peer-reviewed sources, resulting in thousands of pages of notes.
鈥淭here are听definitely tense听moments and incredibly hard debates,鈥 Stolzenfeld听said, 鈥渂ut听I'm听glad to have had a great partner to get through it all with, and amazing coaches to help prepare for challenging debates.鈥听
鈥淭hinking about the fact that I had no idea what policy debate was a few months ago, it's incredibly rewarding to know how far I have come in this activity,鈥听Rodak听added.听鈥淓ach of these tournaments presented their own unique challenges.听But through it all we had our coaches and older members of the team helping us through each and every tournament. Seeing that the work we do does in fact,听pay off, it makes me excited for the years to come with听Mason听诲别产补迟别.鈥听
Beyond the knowledge debate provides, the activity of debate also trains students to become quantum thinkers who can think through issues to the fifth and sixth levels of analysis. And a debater learns to become an accomplished public speaker.听Former Mason Debate alums have become environmental lobbyists on the Hill, judges in district circuit courts, professors, physicists, class action attorneys, graduate students, politicians, and key professionals in other fields.