Over winter break, I had the opportunity to travel with the Princeton Debate Panel (PDP), Princeton’s only competitive debating group, to Ho Chi Minh City to compete in the 2024 Worlds University Debating Championship (WUDC). Held annually, WUDC is the largest debate competition in the world, with around 300 teams competing from universities from all regions of the world including Europe, Asia, and Oceania. Having only ever traveled an hour maximum for my high school competitions, flying all the way to Vietnam was a big step up.
When I landed, I was driven on a bus by the tournament organizers to a hotel at the heart of the city. The first thing I did was treat myself to a delicious dinner with the team that included fresh prawn spring rolls accompanied by a savory peanut sauce, a refreshing coconut and herbal jelly drink, snails, pho, and other classic Vietnamese dishes. Whilst the dishes tasted great, they tasted even better because Princeton was able to fully subsidize all of our meals on our trip!
After exploring the city for a few days, it was time to start the first of four days of the tournament. The format of the tournament was British Parliamentary, where there are four groups of two debaters per room, who all give 7 minute speeches on a topic they receive 15 minutes before the start of the round. Whilst PDP sent 7 teams to debate for this tournament, we also sent 4 judges – including me. The judge’s role is to listen to every speech and come to a decision with two other judges in the room on the ranking of the teams, and the speaking score that every debater gets.
During the first few rounds, I was just a trainee judge, meaning I was not able to enter any rankings onto the online tabulation system. But, during my third round, I was promoted to a panelist, which meant that I could input rankings and have a bigger say in the final decision. During my last day, I was finally promoted to the chair, or the person that has to give an oral adjudication (defend their rankings to the competing teams), and the person that leads the discussion with their panelists/trainees. I was happy that I got to chair a round at my first ever worlds competition, and really enjoyed the opportunity to judge with famous debaters such as the previous winner of WUDC.
Overall, Princeton did very well, with two of our teams breaking into octofinals (getting into the top 32 teams of the entire tournament), and one of our debaters getting 5th best speaker in the world. PDP will be heading to Panama City next year for the 2025 WUDC, and I can’t wait to see how we will perform there.
After a week, the tournament ended, and some of the team decided to extend our stay in Vietnam by booking an Airbnb. During these last few days, we did some incredible things such as cafe hopping (Vietnamese egg coffee is a must!), going to Hai Di Lao hot pot, and going on a one day tour to the Mekong Delta River. During this tour, we got to enjoy some local fruit, honey, lunch, biked around one of the islands, went on a boat ride down the river, and got to talk to an awesome tour guide.
Whilst I was a bit stressed before the competition about how I would perform as a judge, I was happy with how everything turned out. I am so grateful to have been given the opportunity to travel with PDP, and would love to emphasize the importance of taking advantage of every resource that Princeton has to offer – both within and outside the classroom!