Student News & Events

White & Case Invitational Soars As New Teams Debut Vampire Tunde, pictured here with Senca Valley’s Ayaan and Mathias, helped out with awards this past weekend, including a touching tribute to WUDL Director David Trigaux as part of our 10th year anniversary celebrations. Two weeks ago, we celebrated as Marcus from Forest Park was the […]

WUDL Season Opener Bigger Than Ever Forest Park won a lot of trophies this past weekend, including 1st place and top speaker in Novice by Marcus and Kobe (right) We are so excited to get back to debating this season. Students are confronting a heady topic about intellectual property rights, discussing issues from patenting human

3rd Annual I-Resolve Public Debate Packs Planet Word with civic energy and great speeches The 3rd Annual I-Resolve DC Public Debate was the biggest and best yet, hosted downtown at Planet Word, a new museum dedicated to linguistics and showcasing the power of the written and spoken word. “Those two speeches would be in the

WUDL Travel Team Shines @ Georgetown Day Invitational The Neuroth Siblings (and Coach Clarke), Ajani Siblings (and Coach Bah) along with Jess, Mac, and BASIS’s Sitara (not pictured, Daniella) with their trophies from GDS The GDS Grasshopper Invitational is the kick off of WUDL’s Travel Team schedule, usually featuring folks who were in the most

Award Winners: 10th Annual Matthew Harris Ornstein Summer Debate Institute Alumni Addie speaks during the Demo Debate as partner Dennis organizes his research. Saidah and Zara flow, preparing to rebut While the primary goal of summer camp is teaching and inspiring young people, we do want to celebrate the hard work of those who won

Matthew Harris-Ornstein Summer Debate Institute Turns 10 Years Old! Vennela and Marco debated Sangeeth and Jacob during a practice round, focusing being persuasive, not just being right. When we were crowded into four multi-purpose rooms at the Hill Center 10 years ago, we didn’t think about reaching a 10th anniversary. We couldn’t imagine having more

WUDL ES Program Triples in Size in 2nd Spring Tournament! The best Elementary school debaters from each school participating this Spring — Not pictured, Neval Thomas’s Amir and Akeem Have you ever seen a team do the macarena to warm up for a debate?    I hadn’t, but that’s part of the joy of elementary

WUDL Wins Middle School Nationals! Washington Urban Debate League’s 2024 Middle School National Qualifiers and Coaches! This year, the competition to qualify for Middle School Nationals was fiercer than ever, with a record number of competitors. Beyond the numbers of competitors, the level of research and prep has astonished me. Some teams wrote entirely new

WUDL in Elimination Rounds at Urban Debate National Championship, Again! Center City Trinidad has some of the best shirts of our Spring Team Shirt program, and Jaida brought home a lot of swag to go with it! WUDL returned to Chicago, the host of the league’s first Urban Debate National Championship in 2016. Back then,

WUDL Returns From Tournament of Champions Danielle, David, Sitara, Messai, and Daniella at the Tournament of Champions. Not Pictured, Aaron Torop, our local coaching reinforcements Just like the road to qualify to the Tournament of Champions, the competition on site was cut-throat.  Preparation for the tournament started months ago, reviewing the basics and organizing specialized