Prairie View A&M University News March 16, 2021 PVAMU Speech and Debate team takes national, international titles The Prairie View A&M University (PVAMU) Speech and Debate team is having an incredible year, and it's only March. Fresh off its best-ever performance in the National HBCU Speech and Debate Championship that concluded on February 28, the team's two stalwarts, Chiamaka Okoye '22 and Maia McFarlin '24, finished the International Forensics Association tournament<https://forensicstournament.net/IFA/21> on March 14 as champions of the two-on-two National Parliamentary Debate Association (NPDA) format. The two will next take part in PVAMU's inaugural exhibition debate with the Rwandan National Team on March 24. "We're small but mighty," said PVAMU Director of Forensics Christopher "Coach" Medina, Ph.D. "This is the best that Prairie View has ever done. We're extremely proud of these students; they've worked really hard and overcome incredible obstacles to achieve what they have." Champions of a Trying Year A year ago, PVAMU hosted<https://www.pvamu.edu/blog/pvamu-students-shine-at-national-hbcu-speech-and-debate-championship/> the National HBCU Speech and Debate Championship and tripled its record of awards won in the event as a member of the large school category for the first time. (The event's basis of categorization isn't school population but the size of the team.) There was every reason to think that the team's success, even with five members graduating, would lead to more students taking part and excelling. However, Covid-19, which the World Health Organization had just declared a global pandemic, derailed those expectations. With two-thirds of classes online, the normal outreach and recruiting that takes place on campus was severely hampered. A small group consisting of Okoye, McFarlin, and graduated senior Treasure Smith (PVAMU was back in the small school category) were left to prepare for the National HBCU Speech and Debate Championship online. In the final weeks of preparing for the contest, a campus-wide hacking of the IT system multiplied the abnormalities. During which, the Texas deep freeze happened, making it exponential. "With the hack, it was painful, [we] couldn't do anything for two weeks," said Medina. "And then the freeze, oh my goodness. It was the worst ever." But Okoye and McFarlin made it the best ever. With 15 HBCUs taking part in the National HBCU Speech and Debate Championship and approximately 300 entries in the different categories, the two advanced past the preliminary rounds in every event they entered. McFarlin won top honors singly by being named 2021 National HBCU Champion in Extemporaneous Speaking (an event in which Okoye was a semifinalist), while McFarlin and Okoye were named 2021 National HBCU Co-Champions in IPDA Debate. Their achievements were enough to make Prairie View the 2021 National HBCU Speech and Debate Small School Champions. Silver Linings Playbook This is where the abnormal gets good. The International Forensics Association's global competition, which alternates locations annually, was set to take place in Japan in 2021. The cost of such a trip would ordinarily be beyond the reach of smaller schools like Prairie View. Still, this year's virtual format, using 8X8 live video rooms, made it possible for Okoye and McFarlin to represent PVAMU in its first-ever international competition. They represented PVAMU well. In a field of entrants comprising 38 institutions, including the US Air Force Academy and Yale, Hofstra, Oregon State, Texas Southern, and Vanderbilt Universities, Okoye and McFarlin were crowned NPDA tournament champions. In the tournament's final round, Okoye and McFarlin debated the negative side of a topic that called for Africa's adoption of a universal currency, and their arguments about the perpetuation of imperialism and colonialism won the day. Their next competition, the exhibition with Rwanda, is similarly being made possible by moving to screens. Medina has been friendly with the Rwanda delegation since his time coaching the "Great Debaters" of Wiley College fame. "They utilize debate in Rwanda as a reconciliation between the Hutus and Tutsis after the genocide," Medina explained. "To give our students an opportunity to engage with students halfway around the world is exciting, but it's also extremely important in opening their eyes to other perspectives." No Debate About It When the prime tournament season ends this spring, Medina and his staff will begin full preparation for what everyone hopes will be a normal year, with students and professors in regular actual (as opposed to virtual) contact. "Our recruiting is really dependent on who we come in contact with, and students do a lot of it," Medina said. "We're also trying to at some point put together a summer camp for high school students." Many people assume that most debaters are future lawyers, but Medina notes that great debaters can come from all walks of life. "We have students from all different majors and interests," said Medina. "Chia [Okoye] is a biology major, Maia [McFarlin] studies political science, and Treasure Smith studied criminal justice. We sometimes teach our students to make arguments in different ways, which helps students who are not actually debaters utilize argumentation within their art, strengthening their critical thinking skills." Medina added that many people don't realize the different styles and formats that debates take in this era. "Some formats require students to make arguments with literature and then act it out, so there are artistic elements to it," he said. McFarlin and Okoye both excel in Extemporaneous Speaking, in which participants are given three questions and have 30 minutes to prepare a speech that answers one of the questions utilizing resources and data. But they both also shine in Impromptu Speaking, in which participants are given a quotation and have a minute and a half to prepare a five-and-a-half-minute speech. "They're very different formats," Medina said, "but they're both very useful." Useful skills, and fruitful; in a span of weeks, these Prairie View A&M students have added national and international titles to match their ambitions. Sandra M. Phoenix HBCU Library Alliance Executive Director Atlanta University Center Robert W. Woodruff Library 111 James P. Brawley Drive SW Atlanta GA 30314 404-978-2118 (office) 404-702-5854 (cell) http://www.hbculibraries.org<http://www.hbculibraries.org/> sphoenix@hbculibraries.org<mailto:sphoenix@hbculibraries.org> Honor the ancestors, honor the children and those yet to come. Building Capacity for Humanities Special Collections at HBCUs - Become an ally and partner with us to protect, preserve and share a more authentic record of American history. Follow this link http://hbculibraries.org/humanities-2019.html for more information. Follow this link http://hbculibraries.org/ and click on the Donate Now button to invest in this project. Your support is appreciated. Follow us on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/hbculibraryalliance1/ and Twitter at https://twitter.com/HBCULibAlliance Check out "PULSE!" The HBCU Library Alliance's News Source! - https://hbculibraryalliance.wordpress.com/