Lauren Harchut
Staff Writer
After being judged by lawyers and political members, the ULV debate team took home a satisfying win at Politicon Oct. 9 and Oct. 10 at the Los Angeles Convention Center.
Politicon is a non-partisan Comic-Con style event for politics and entertainment with multiple events such as panels, debates, screenings, music performances and more.
The debate team also attended the Aztec International at San Diego State University Oct. 3. ULV had the top team of the tournament, beating top-ranked schools like USC, UCLA and Pepperdine.
ULV also had the top speaker, biology major junior Kandin Maraquin, as well as the top novice speaker, speech communications and political science major freshman Sarah Osuna.
“We don’t really have a specific rival, we just work hard to compete and win every round no matter the school,” said senior speech communications major and team captain Brittany Boiko. “Whether it be Claremont, Loyola Marymount University, Harvard, or anything in between, we use the same tactics and have the same drive to win no matter the school.”
Many members of the team graduated this past spring, but they gained freshman and transfer students this semester.
“We have a pretty young debate team this year that has great talent, as well with some very key veterans,” Boiko said. “As captain, I just want to make sure that we uphold the reputation for La Verne debate. I want my team to remain humble, and follow one of our team values of ‘Expect nothing and be grateful for everything.’”
Boiko said the team works on maintaining multiple strategies, which have been taught and practiced with the new members. She said their biggest strategy is to continue being persuasive along with being friendly outside of rounds, which gives La Verne a great reputation.
“From this year’s debate team, I expect to see improvement in my speaking skills and eventually be at the top,” said Tamar Miot, business administration major and debate team judge.
The team continues to focus on these strategies as they prepare themselves for the World Universities Debating Championship, which takes place at the end of December in Greece.
“The team we’re sending to Worlds, as well as myself as a judge, have never been to the world championship so it’ll be an all new experience,” Boiko said. “It’ll be a learning opportunity but I also think our team has a very good shot at making La Verne proud. Most of our team is very young and already very talented, so everyone is going to grow.”
The debate team has 38 members this semester and practices on Tuesdays and Thursdays from 4 p.m. to 6 p.m. and Fridays from 6 p.m to 10 p.m.
“We continue to practice three days a week, running anywhere from three to four rounds,” Boiko said. “So if we keep this up, I think we should see many wins at tournaments this year, as we have thus far.”
Lauren Harchut can be reached at lauren.harchut@laverne.edu.
