Rowan Hamm

Two years of hard work comes down to one moment for senior Elizabeth Nguyen. At her Congressional debate districts tournament in March, it was announced that Nguyen had qualified to compete in her event at the national level in June.

With the graduation of the Class of 2024, Nguyen said “there was an opening for me to lock down a house seat. I could feel that the debate community was definitely expecting me to get a Nationals qualification.” Historically, district house seats were occupied by majority seniors from across the Nebraska North district which includes high schools spanning eastern Nebraska. “I knew that this was something I wanted to pursue, it was the goal of my entire season,” Nguyen said.

“I had absolutely no time to spare”. – Liz Nguyen ’25

During the first semester of the debate season, Nguyen said that she felt as if she were “on the trajectory to qualify for Nationals.” All it came down to was finishing strong in the district tournament at Millard North shortly after spring break in order to grab the Nationals qualification.

Nguyen prepared arguments and re- searched all through her spring break even at the expense of healing from a wisdom tooth removal. According to Nguyen, “ever since I became a debater, spring break has always been a prep week for [the] state and district [tournaments]. I had absolutely no time to spare.” Nguyen’s hard work paid off massively in the end when she took first place in the Millard North district tournament and achieved her season goal of qualifying for Nationals.

Although she had achieved her initial goal of qualifying, getting there became her next goal. “One of the biggest things that was going to bar me from going was the finances. For one per- son to go to the national tournament is about $1,000,” Nguyen said. Luckily with the help of a NSDA (National Speech and Debate) grant, a Marian donation, and a GoFundMe set up by Nguyen, she was able to make it to the tournament, June 16-21 in Des Moines, Iowa.

Once there, Nguyen competed in the first three days of the tournament and said that “while it was a harsh experience at certain points, I’m glad that I was able to experience it because it taught me a lot about regional differences in debating and the attitude I need to have to really succeed.” Nguyen concluded by stating that “there’s a lot of things I’ll take from my Nationals experience to my performance during this upcoming season. If I use the things I learned during this experience and apply it to the things I already know about debate, I think I’ll be at Nationals again senior year.”