Livingston’s Omega Speech and Debate Team Finishes Strong 2024 Season

LIVINGSTON, NJ — The Omega Speech and Debate (OSD) Travel Team, featuring members from a local public speaking and debate academy run by Livingston High School (LHS) Class of 0000 alumnus Matthew Zhang, recently finished its season with outstanding performances at two national debate tournaments.

Zhang, now a student at Harvard College, was the captain of the LHS Speech and Debate Team and was ranked Top 3 in the nation in Public Forum Debate while at LHS.

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The OSD Spring 2024 Travel Debate Team was composed of 22 students in 11 partnerships. Throughout March and April, the team practiced every weekend, honing their debate skills through drills and mock debate rounds.

Additionally, the team did research on the official April 2024 Public Forum Debate Topic, which was “Resolved: The United Nations should abolish permanent membership on its Security Council.” The debaters dove deep into complex international relations concepts and read about the history of the UN Security Council to craft compelling arguments on both the Pro and Con sides of the topic.

The OSD Travel Team’s hard work paid off earlier this month, when team members competed in one of two national debate tournaments: the Big Blue Invitational and the Middle School Tournament of Champions (MSTOC).

The Big Blue Invitational had two divisions: Novice Public Forum Debate and Varsity Public Forum Debate. OSD dominated the tournament by championing both divisions.

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LHS freshmen Daniel Zhang and Ethan Zhang won first place in varsity, while Gavin Zhao and Kevin Chen took home first place in novice. Zhao was ranked the number one best individual speaker in the novice division.

In addition to the two champions, Heritage Middle School (HMS) eighth graders Alan Li and Sloka Nandyala placed third in novice. Alan was ranked the sixth best individual speaker.

At the MSTOC, HMS students Sophie Hao and Chloe Guan placed in the Top 40 out of 165 teams in public forum debate. Guan was ranked the 35th best individual speaker out of 330 competitors.

Although May marks the end of the 2023-24 debate competition season, OSD travel team members will attend the OSD 2024 Summer Camp to continue improving their debate skills and prepare to accomplish even greater feats next season.

All award-winning OSD students were first introduced to debate at the OSD Summer Camp. The OSD staff is excited to teach new students at this summer’s camp and help them embark on the challenging but fun journey to debate accolades and excellence.

The OSD 2024 Summer Camp, an in-person program in August in Livingston, is now open for registration. Rising fourth through 11th grade students are welcome to enroll.

For more information on the camp, visit the OSD website at omegaspeechdebate.org.

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