{"id":7960,"date":"2018-11-01T18:20:36","date_gmt":"2018-11-02T01:20:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/laverne.edu\/news\/?p=7960"},"modified":"2022-01-12T12:32:33","modified_gmt":"2022-01-12T20:32:33","slug":"debate-team-earns-top-honors-whirlwind-weekend-events","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/laverne.edu\/news\/2018\/11\/01\/debate-team-earns-top-honors-whirlwind-weekend-events\/","title":{"rendered":"Debate Team Earns Top Honors During Whirlwind Weekend of Events"},"content":{"rendered":"

Members of the University of La Verne Debate Team<\/a> earned top honors at recent events in Los Angeles and Denver.<\/p>\n

Sophomore Jonas Poggi and freshman Noor Tabba defeated a team from rival University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) at Politicon, which was held at the Los Angeles Convention Center on Oct. 20 and 21.<\/p>\n

The same weekend, eleven other team members participated in the Rocky Mountain Debate Championship, a tournament held at the University of Denver that draws top teams from across the country.<\/p>\n

Junior Fares Abdullah and sophomore Adam Pepper took first place in the open division. Freshman Esilanna McMenamin and sophomore Dallas Dorsey made it to the finals in the novice division. Freshman Mason Stackman was named the top novice speaker and senior Michael Eberle and junior Kacee Jones made it as far as the quarter finals.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re very fortunate,\u201d said Rob Ruiz, director of forensics and interim chairman of the university\u2019s Speech Communication Department. \u201cOur talent pool is so spread out it was easy to say \u2018yes\u2019 and send students to multiple events.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Politicon event attracted political and media heavyweights from across the country. The debate between University of La Verne and UCLA was judged by celebrities Clay Aiken and Mo Kelly, who unanimously gave the victory to Poggi and Tabba.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, in Colorado, more than 70 teams competed in the Rocky Mountain tournament.<\/p>\n

The first day of competition was 16-hours long, and Abdullah and Pepper participated in five preliminary rounds.<\/p>\n

The two advanced to the quarter finals and semi-finals before facing the University of Alaska Anchorage in the finals.<\/p>\n

\u201cI knew from our very first round we were doing well,\u201d Pepper said.<\/p>\n

The university\u2019s Debate Team is a perennial powerhouse. It often competes against teams from Harvard, Yale, and other internationally-known institutions.<\/p>\n

For Abdullah, that\u2019s not intimidating.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe can go head to head with them,\u201d he said. \u201cI love playing for the underdog.\u201d<\/p>\n

The champions were welcomed back to campus to a flood of congratulatory messages.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was nice to feel the support, not just by our team, but by the La Verne community,\u201d Pepper said.<\/p>\n

Pictured above:\u00a0Fares Abdullah and Adam Pepper of the University of La Verne Debate Team.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Members of the University of La Verne Debate Team earned top honors at recent events in Los Angeles and Denver.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":17,"featured_media":7961,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1549,283,4814],"tags":[194,2034],"class_list":["post-7960","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news-and-events","category-students","category-laverne-edu-news-university-campus-life","tag-communications","tag-hp"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nDebate Team Earns Top Honors | University of La Verne<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Members of the University of La Verne Debate Team earned top honors at recent events in Los Angeles and Denver.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/laverne.edu\/news\/2018\/11\/01\/debate-team-earns-top-honors-whirlwind-weekend-events\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Debate Team Earns Top Honors During Whirlwind Weekend of Events\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Members of the University of La Verne Debate Team earned top honors at recent events in Los Angeles and Denver.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/laverne.edu\/news\/2018\/11\/01\/debate-team-earns-top-honors-whirlwind-weekend-events\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"University of La Verne News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2018-11-02T01:20:36+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2022-01-12T20:32:33+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/laverne.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2018\/11\/DebateTeam3-scaled.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"2560\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"1707\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/laverne.edu\/news\/2018\/11\/01\/debate-team-earns-top-honors-whirlwind-weekend-events\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/laverne.edu\/news\/2018\/11\/01\/debate-team-earns-top-honors-whirlwind-weekend-events\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"\",\"@id\":\"\"},\"headline\":\"Debate Team Earns Top Honors During Whirlwind Weekend of Events\",\"datePublished\":\"2018-11-02T01:20:36+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2022-01-12T20:32:33+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/laverne.edu\/news\/2018\/11\/01\/debate-team-earns-top-honors-whirlwind-weekend-events\/\"},\"wordCount\":377,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/laverne.edu\/news\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/laverne.edu\/news\/2018\/11\/01\/debate-team-earns-top-honors-whirlwind-weekend-events\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/laverne.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2018\/11\/DebateTeam3-scaled.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"Communications\",\"HP\"],\"articleSection\":[\"News and Events\",\"Students\",\"University & Campus Life\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"copyrightYear\":\"2018\",\"copyrightHolder\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/laverne.edu\/#organization\"}},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/laverne.edu\/news\/2018\/11\/01\/debate-team-earns-top-honors-whirlwind-weekend-events\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/laverne.edu\/news\/2018\/11\/01\/debate-team-earns-top-honors-whirlwind-weekend-events\/\",\"name\":\"Debate Team Earns Top Honors | University of La Verne\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/laverne.edu\/news\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/laverne.edu\/news\/2018\/11\/01\/debate-team-earns-top-honors-whirlwind-weekend-events\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/laverne.edu\/news\/2018\/11\/01\/debate-team-earns-top-honors-whirlwind-weekend-events\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/laverne.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2018\/11\/DebateTeam3-scaled.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2018-11-02T01:20:36+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2022-01-12T20:32:33+00:00\",\"description\":\"Members of the University of La Verne Debate Team earned top honors at recent events in Los Angeles and Denver.\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/laverne.edu\/news\/2018\/11\/01\/debate-team-earns-top-honors-whirlwind-weekend-events\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/laverne.edu\/news\/2018\/11\/01\/debate-team-earns-top-honors-whirlwind-weekend-events\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/laverne.edu\/news\/2018\/11\/01\/debate-team-earns-top-honors-whirlwind-weekend-events\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/laverne.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2018\/11\/DebateTeam3-scaled.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/laverne.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2018\/11\/DebateTeam3-scaled.jpg\",\"width\":2560,\"height\":1707,\"caption\":\"Fares Abdullah and Adam Pepper of the University of La Verne Debate Team.\"},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/laverne.edu\/news\/2018\/11\/01\/debate-team-earns-top-honors-whirlwind-weekend-events\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/laverne.edu\/news\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Debate Team Earns Top Honors During Whirlwind Weekend of Events\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/laverne.edu\/news\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/laverne.edu\/news\/\",\"name\":\"University of La Verne News\",\"description\":\"Univerity of La Verne\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/laverne.edu\/news\/#organization\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/laverne.edu\/news\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/laverne.edu\/news\/#organization\",\"name\":\"University of La Verne\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/laverne.edu\/news\/\",\"logo\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/laverne.edu\/news\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/laverne.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2022\/05\/favicon-48.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/laverne.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2022\/05\/favicon-48.png\",\"width\":48,\"height\":48,\"caption\":\"University of La Verne\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/laverne.edu\/news\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\"}},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/laverne.edu\/news\/author\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO Premium plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Debate Team Earns Top Honors | University of La Verne","description":"Members of the University of La Verne Debate Team earned top honors at recent events in Los Angeles and Denver.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/laverne.edu\/news\/2018\/11\/01\/debate-team-earns-top-honors-whirlwind-weekend-events\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Debate Team Earns Top Honors During Whirlwind Weekend of Events","og_description":"Members of the University of La Verne Debate Team earned top honors at recent events in Los Angeles and Denver.","og_url":"https:\/\/laverne.edu\/news\/2018\/11\/01\/debate-team-earns-top-honors-whirlwind-weekend-events\/","og_site_name":"University of La Verne News","article_published_time":"2018-11-02T01:20:36+00:00","article_modified_time":"2022-01-12T20:32:33+00:00","og_image":[{"width":2560,"height":1707,"url":"https:\/\/laverne.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2018\/11\/DebateTeam3-scaled.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"","Est. reading time":"2 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/laverne.edu\/news\/2018\/11\/01\/debate-team-earns-top-honors-whirlwind-weekend-events\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/laverne.edu\/news\/2018\/11\/01\/debate-team-earns-top-honors-whirlwind-weekend-events\/"},"author":{"name":"","@id":""},"headline":"Debate Team Earns Top Honors During Whirlwind Weekend of Events","datePublished":"2018-11-02T01:20:36+00:00","dateModified":"2022-01-12T20:32:33+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/laverne.edu\/news\/2018\/11\/01\/debate-team-earns-top-honors-whirlwind-weekend-events\/"},"wordCount":377,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/laverne.edu\/news\/#organization"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/laverne.edu\/news\/2018\/11\/01\/debate-team-earns-top-honors-whirlwind-weekend-events\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/laverne.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2018\/11\/DebateTeam3-scaled.jpg","keywords":["Communications","HP"],"articleSection":["News and Events","Students","University & Campus Life"],"inLanguage":"en-US","copyrightYear":"2018","copyrightHolder":{"@id":"https:\/\/laverne.edu\/#organization"}},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/laverne.edu\/news\/2018\/11\/01\/debate-team-earns-top-honors-whirlwind-weekend-events\/","url":"https:\/\/laverne.edu\/news\/2018\/11\/01\/debate-team-earns-top-honors-whirlwind-weekend-events\/","name":"Debate Team Earns Top Honors | University of La Verne","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/laverne.edu\/news\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/laverne.edu\/news\/2018\/11\/01\/debate-team-earns-top-honors-whirlwind-weekend-events\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/laverne.edu\/news\/2018\/11\/01\/debate-team-earns-top-honors-whirlwind-weekend-events\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/laverne.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2018\/11\/DebateTeam3-scaled.jpg","datePublished":"2018-11-02T01:20:36+00:00","dateModified":"2022-01-12T20:32:33+00:00","description":"Members of the University of La Verne Debate Team earned top honors at recent events in Los Angeles and Denver.","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/laverne.edu\/news\/2018\/11\/01\/debate-team-earns-top-honors-whirlwind-weekend-events\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/laverne.edu\/news\/2018\/11\/01\/debate-team-earns-top-honors-whirlwind-weekend-events\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/laverne.edu\/news\/2018\/11\/01\/debate-team-earns-top-honors-whirlwind-weekend-events\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/laverne.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2018\/11\/DebateTeam3-scaled.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/laverne.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2018\/11\/DebateTeam3-scaled.jpg","width":2560,"height":1707,"caption":"Fares Abdullah and Adam Pepper of the University of La Verne Debate Team."},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/laverne.edu\/news\/2018\/11\/01\/debate-team-earns-top-honors-whirlwind-weekend-events\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/laverne.edu\/news\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Debate Team Earns Top Honors During Whirlwind Weekend of Events"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/laverne.edu\/news\/#website","url":"https:\/\/laverne.edu\/news\/","name":"University of La Verne News","description":"Univerity of La Verne","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/laverne.edu\/news\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/laverne.edu\/news\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/laverne.edu\/news\/#organization","name":"University of La Verne","url":"https:\/\/laverne.edu\/news\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/laverne.edu\/news\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/laverne.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2022\/05\/favicon-48.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/laverne.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2022\/05\/favicon-48.png","width":48,"height":48,"caption":"University of La Verne"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/laverne.edu\/news\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"}},{"@type":"Person","@id":"","url":"https:\/\/laverne.edu\/news\/author\/"}]}},"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-04-22 02:31:25","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/laverne.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7960"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/laverne.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/laverne.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/laverne.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/17"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/laverne.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7960"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/laverne.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7960\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10333,"href":"https:\/\/laverne.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7960\/revisions\/10333"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/laverne.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7961"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/laverne.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7960"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/laverne.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7960"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/laverne.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7960"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}