A&M Consolidated High School debate team sweeps UIL Region 6 Congress Contest, advances to state meet
Dec. 8, 2023—A&M Consolidated High School debate team members Rowan Seipp, David Zhang and Jenny Jeong, earned the top three spots at the UIL Region 6 Congress Contest on Nov. 14. Seipp earned first place, Zhang earned second place and Jeong earned third place.
This marks the second year in a row that A&M Consolidated has swept at the region meet and advanced to the state meet, which will take place in January.
“Congress is one of the most real-world applicable events that students can do,” said Brian Alford, speech and debate coach at A&M Consolidated. Students are able to learn about current events and debate the issues with their peers, giving them a much broader world view. In the 10 years that UIL has had Congress as an event, A&M Consolidated has had consistent success in this event.”
The UIL Congress contest is an individual contest in a large group setting. It models the legislative process of democracy, specifically, the United States Congress. Within this mock legislative assembly competition, contestants draft legislation (proposed laws and position statements) submitted to the tournament, and they research the docket of bills and resolutions dealing with real-world social and political policies prior to the contest to prepare their speeches.
At the tournament, students caucus in committees, deliver formal discourse on the merits and disadvantages of each piece of legislation, and vote to pass or defeat the measures they have examined. Parliamentary procedure forms structure for the discourse, and students extemporaneously respond to others’ arguments over the course of a session.