Members of the Upper School Debate Team collected accolades at the 2023 New York City Invitational Debate and Speech Tournament. Hosted at the Bronx High School of Science, the invitational drew 166 teams in the Public Forum style with schools competing from across the country as well as internationally.

In their first time formally debating together, team members Elena M. '24 and Avery C. '25 earned a 6-1 record in the preliminary rounds and 8th seed. They advanced to elimination rounds, and finished as octofinalists overall. This placement earned them a Gold bid to the Tournament of Champions, the championship tournament of the national debate circuit. There have only been a handful of times in Spence history that a team has qualified to attend the tournament in its ten-year history, and this is the first time a Grade 11 student from Spence has ever earned a Gold bid.

“We are incredibly excited to represent Spence at our first in-person Tournament of Champions in London, Kentucky this April,” said Elena. The past two Spence teams to attend participated in virtual tournaments in 2021 and 2022. 

In addition, Avery earned a speaker award and placed 25th in speaker rankings out of 332 speakers. Both Elena and Avery earned 30 speaker points (the maximum amount possible) in one of their rounds.

Congratulations, Spence Debate Team members!