HWS News
21 November 2024 HWS Debate to Compete at Worlds in Panama
Hudson Chou ’27, Fairooj Suhita ’27, Lamia Nur Rahman ’26 and Sandeep Tissaaratchy ’26 have been selected to represent HWS at the World University Debate Championship in Panama.
HWS Debate has selected four elite debaters to represent Hobart and William Smith at the 2024 World University Debate Championship in Panama City, Panama on Dec. 27 - Jan. 5. Based on their success, HWS Debate selected Lamia Nur Rahman ’26 and Sandeep Tissaaratchy ’26, and Hudson Chou ’27 and Fairooj Suhita ’27 to compete on the world stage. Rahman and Tissaaratchy and Suhita and Chou will compete as two separate teams.
HWS is one of many teams competing at Worlds from North America. Competitors include Princeton, Stanford and Dartmouth universities.
HWS Debate heads into Worlds on the strength of a successful year in national and international tournaments. Most recently, the teams traveled to England to compete at both Oxford Intervarsity and Cambridge Intervarsity – two of the largest and most prestigious tournaments in the world.
In their debate careers, Rahman and Tissaaratchy have won major titles, including: semifinalists at the North American University Debate Championship held in Mexico City, semifinalists at the United States University Debate Championship and quarterfinalists at the Yale IV Debate Championship.
At last year’s World University Debate Championship, held in Vietnam, Tissaaratchy and Rahman broke the HWS record, finishing 17th in the world. Out of debaters who speak English as a Second Language, the pair finished 3rd in the world. In all, the tournament brought 600 debaters from 150 institutions and 60 countries together to compete.
Suhita and Chou are gaining momentum. The pair were semifinalists at the United States University Debate Championship and qualified to the final round of the Novice National Debating Championship, Colgate University Open Final and the Novice Finals of the North American University Debate Championship.
Top: The HWS Debate Team poses for a group photo while competing at Yale University.
