Debate partners Grace Kessler and Eugenia Giampetruzzi finished the season ranked as the second-best collegiate debate team in the country. Giampetruzzi also won the Top Speaker award at the National Debate Tournament.
Lots of people argue online. This fall, Emory Woodruff Debate Scholars Eu Giampetruzzi and Grace Kessler were winning trophies for it.
When intercollegiate policy debate shifted online, the pair logged into tournaments from Giampetruzzi’s apartment on Emory’s Clairmont Campus. At their first tournament, they were the top seed after preliminary rounds, losing in the octofinals. They went on to win 88% of their debates (with only seven losses) and accumulated enough points with each win to earn a chance to battle for the national title in the National Debate Tournament next March.
The accomplishment is notable not for only a young team – Giampetruzzi and Kessler are a sophomore and first-year, respectively – but because of the rarity of an all-female team to reach that level.