UW-Madison Speech and Debate Team wins national championship

By Natasha Hicks STAFF WRITER

Earlier this month, the Wisconsin Speech and Debate Society competed at the Yaatly Online Debating League (YODL) National Debating Championship tournament in Denver, ultimately winning the entire championship tournament.

The winning team — made up of senior William Darbyshire and junior Zachary Heintz — is the first in decades to win the championship for the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

“Everyone went silent waiting for the final announcement, and then when hearing, ‘The winner is UW-Madison,’ everyone exploded,” Darbyshire said. “If the other teams hadn’t heard ‘Jump Around’ before then, they definitely did then because it was blasted on.”

Four years ago, Wisconsin Speech and Debate was not competing in any tournaments of this nature, team coach A.J. Carver said. But it has grown since then.

“It’s something we’ve been building over the last four years,” Carver said. “In the course of four years, we’ve gone from basically nothing to winning the national tournament.”

According to Darbyshire, in the debate league, there is a series of smaller online tournaments that lead up to the national championship tournament, where everyone comes together in person.

“It was great to connect with people from other schools — your opponents — to debate in a way that you wouldn’t if it was online,” Darbyshire said.

At the national championship, Darbyshire and Heintz competed against 64 teams representing 17 other universities across the country.

In the final round, they competed against teams from the United States Air Force Academy, Regis University and the University of Alaska-Anchorage. Even with ample competition, Darbyshire and Heintz managed to win the championship for UW-Madison.

“I think it showed how rigorous and valuable the culture of debate we built at Madison is,” Darbyshire said. “I’m really proud of what we know.”

Carver emphasized that although Heintz and Darbyshire deserve individual credit, winning a national championship is a team e ort.

“It takes the whole team to win,” he said. “Each debate requires four teams to practice, so we need at least six other members. Fortunately, we have more than that — to practice — and it takes a lot of support from donors, so a team e ort.” to stipends that facilitate participation in internships.” State grants issued in 2022 and 2023 expanded this program.

Two other teams from UW-Madison also competed in the national championship. Neither of the teams broke the top 16, but both were close. Each held eight points each, which Carver said is a good sign for the future.

Though Carver is not coaching next year, he believes he is leaving the team in good hands and on an upward trajectory.

“We got [a new coach] who I believe will be quite good and will be able to build on this tradition,” he said.

Carver encourages students to join the debate team — even if they do not have prior experience.

“We’re open,” he said. “I think some people have this misconception that you have to have done speech and debate in middle or high school. That’s not true, and [Darbyshire’s]’s case really demonstrates that. You can show up with almost no experience and go from zero to hero in the debate context.

Internships connect schools and students with local companies and award students opportunities to explore fast-growing fields of the future, according to the governor’s o ce.

Evers highlighted four main areas of investment: green energy and clean water, agriculture, cybersecurity, and humanities and social studies.

“Students who intern for a Wisconsin company are more likely to stay in the state after graduation, making internships a valuable workforce retention strategy,” DWD Secretary Amy Pechacek said last week.

UW-Milwaukee received $590,624 total for programs in green energy, clean water, humanities and social studies. For green energy, the university will partner with local businesses to award paid threemonth internships to 42 students.

For humanities, the aim of the program is to expand paid internship opportunities in areas where students are usually only o ered unpaid internships — a barrier for

+BADGER CATHOLIC

Planning Zember’s talk, the opportunity for new ‘perspectives’

At the beginning of the Q&A session, Badger Catholic President Max Sherwin shared that two years of planning led to Zember’s presence on campus. Approximately 175 students swiped their Wiscards to attend the event, according to Sherwin.

“We just wanted Kim to come here and share about how the church approaches the topic of sexuality and preach her lesson of love,” he said.

Alexis Bakken, vice president of Badger Catholic, reiterated this sentiment.

“We knew that Kim would come here and really talk about love and acceptance as opposed to someone who would come and stir,” Bakken said. “I think it is really hard these days when so many peo ple disagree [on these topics]. We have a lot of trust and faith in [Zember].” ciated that many members of the audience who engaged with Zember do not regularly attend Badger Catholic’s events, and both enjoyed hearing from var ied “perspectives.”

I thought it was great. People who don’t typically come to our events were asking questions,” Sherwin said. “It’s a university, and it doesn’t do us any good if we sit in an echo chamber and just bounce the same ideas that we hold off of one another. It was super cool to get other people’s perspectives from the audience.”

Bakken also noted that she many students.

UW-Stout also received $298,771 to build a cybersecurity internship program that would provide more than 40 students with internships in cybersecurity.

The tech sector is a growing industry for young employees entering the workforce, according to Pechacek. Student enrollment in data science and computer science programs have risen starkly at UW-Madison and other schools across the UW System.

Additionally, UW-River Falls received $244,426 to create programs for student agriculture internships. The funding gives 20 students an opportunity to be placed in 14-week summer or academic year internships in the agriculture industry.

UW System President Jay Rothman applauded the internship program funding in a statement last week.

“As Wisconsin’s talent generator, we educate students to think critically while they also learn valuable skills needed in the workforce,” Rothman said. “These internships will help students kick-start their careers while meeting employer demand for talent.” was glad the event did not become violent and there were no protesters.

“We were just really blessed that there were no protesters or any violence because you never really know with events like this that get a bigger response,” Bakken added. “Most of the time, people do not even know our events are happening.”

The event lasted about two hours and can be viewed on Badger Catholic’s Facebook. For students interested in further discussing topics related to faith and sexuality, Sex Out Loud runs a peer mentor program, and the UW Gender and Sexuality Campus Center hosts a similar program specific to LGBTQ+ students.

Editor’s note: Sex Out Loud hosts a podcast under The Daily Cardinal Media Corporation. Mia Warren is a co-host of the show. Jane Houseal has also contributed to The Daily Cardinal Life & StyleandNewsdesks.