Team Roster
EXECUTIVE BOARD 2011 – 2012
Denise Yu, President
Denise joined the Columbia Parliamentary Debate Society as a sophomore after transferring from Boston College, where she was introduced to parli by her dear friend Sam. Since then, debate has been an integral part of her undergraduate experience. Last year, she directed the college tournament, and this year she has an ambitious vision for the team which primarily involves boosting Columbia Debate’s visibility on- and off-campus through public debate programming, service initiatives, strengthening alumni relations, and generally being awesome. She also works with the Metropolitan Debate League and the Inter School Council on middle school and high school debate programs, respectively. She serves as Chief Expansion Coordinator for the American Parliamentary Debate Association. In her spare time she likes to wander around Manhattan and watch cat videos on YouTube.
Shalei Holway VP, Finance
Shalei is a Junior at Barnard and currently pursuing a double major in Sociology and Psychology. This year she is the team’s treasurer. Shalei is currently the director of the weekly after school debate program at The School at Columbia and she really enjoys working with the kids there.
Ilana Rice VP, Campus Affairs
Ilana Rice got to cater to the needs of 300 argumentative college students for two days as the Vice President in charge of Campus Affairs, whose primary function is to plan and execute the annual college tournament. Last year, she served as Columbia Debate’s Social Media Coordinator even though she already spends all of her time bragging about the team via Facebook anyway. Ilana is a junior at Barnard College majoring in Political Science and minoring in Economics, even though as a young Jewish girl growing up in Westchester she really wanted to play professional basketball. She will have to settle for taking over for Jon Stewart when he retires from the Daily Show. When not harping on her opponents’ philosophical inconsistency, speaking in strange accents, or trying to figure out if Rick Santorum is actually a real person, she enjoys watching, writing for, and performing various forms of comedy and advocating on behalf of America’s military veterans. She has also been in two Columbia University musicals, appearing both times as a Jewish mother. Go figure.
Alexa Semonche VP, Public Affairs
Alexa is a sophomore at Columbia College who is studying either neuroscience or philosophy, depending on whether she feels like being unemployed for the rest of her life or not (and has even thought ahead far enough to claim dibs on the spacious future basement space of various econ majors). She competed in Lincoln-Douglas debate throughout high school and dedicated herself to building up her high school’s debate team. She lives on a diet of skittles and caffeine, can’t live without unnecessarily fancy pens, and collects really old books that she’ll probably never find the time to read. If going into science research/philosophical contemplation doesn’t end up working out, Alexa has a sick contingency plan of running away and joining the circus, which has been a fanciful dream career ever since she went to an artsy summer camp that actually had a circus performance program.
Bernardo Sarmiento VP, Team Affairs
Bernardo, a sophomore in Columbia College majoring in English and Comparative Literature, joined Columbia Debate his freshman year after a successful debating career in his home country of Mexico. He currently serves as the team’s Vice President of Team Affairs, which means that he is in charge of novice recruitment and training. This position has allowed him to focus on the heuristic side of debate, which is something he really enjoys. He is currently focused on increasing the dynamism of novice preparation to maximize its efficacy and overall enjoyment. In high school, Bernardo was one of the pioneers of debate in Mexico—today one of the fastest growing national circuits in the world—and represented Mexico in the World Schools Debating Championships in 2009 and 2010. He also helped coach the Mexican team for the 2011 championships, and has led debate seminars for middle school and high school students in Mexico. Bernardo also serves as an honorary board member and consultant in the “Mexican Debate Association.”
Katie Bentivoglio, Secretary
Katie Bentivoglio wandered onto the Columbia Debate team fresh off the plane from California with absolutely no idea what was going on. Since then, she has not only learned how to flow and the difference between a POC and a POI, but she is now the team Secretary and considers the debate team her home away from home. Katie is also an expert at Econ cases, so watch out: she’ll simplify them so well you’ll have no idea how everything became so obvious. Outside of debate, Katie is a junior in Columbia College double majoring in Political Science and Middle Eastern Studies. She also writes for the Columbia Spectator, works as a student tutor, and acts as an Alumni Ambassador for the Critical Language Scholarship. When she’s not rambling about some recent Middle East election or talking about Tunisia, Katie enjoys running through Central Park, pretending to be a vegan, and eating Luna bars.
Joe Eddy, Campus Events Coordinator
Joe is a sophomore at Columbia College who is pursuing a major in Mathematics and a concentration in Computer Science. He comes from a background of four years of High school debate and is proud to now serve as the team’s Campus Events Coordinator. When he is not tirelessly planning campus events, writing bizarre cases about religion, or constructing well thought out biographies, Joe loves to play piano and keep up with everything that’s going on in the world.
Darpan Patel, Community Service Coordinator
Darpan Patel is a sophomore in Columbia College studying biology and math, though he checks into the savory world of politics and humanities as often as time allows. Although he is a natural born Jersey kid, his home at heart lies in the suburbs of Atlanta. He competed in policy debate for four years in high school before joining the Columbia debate team in freshman year. Darpan currently serves as the Community Service Coordinator, and is excited to work in this capacity to help local middle and high school students explore the challenges and benefits of rhetoric and argumentation in debate. In his free time, Darpan does research in cancer biology and is also working on setting up a research club for science undergraduates and science outreach programs for middle and elementary school students in the NYC area. Of course, he also tries to capitalize on those few months at the beginning of school to enjoy some Ultimate Frisbee and lounging underneath the night sky with good friends.
Alex McHale, Corporate Liaison
Alex, short for his Vietnamese name, Alêchxăngđro, has been trying to break free from his overbearing Vietnamese upbringing for twenty-one years. Arrested four times before October of his freshman year, Alex found himself – freed himself – when he joined Columbia Debate. His first real support group and community, the team welcomed him with only mildly judgmental arms, the best he could find at the time. The activity quickly proved to settle the nerves of his parents, as well as – finally – provide an outlet for Alex to meet girls. (Alex had never spoken to one, other than his mother, and the occasional waitress, before stepping foot on the Columbia campus.) After his first APDA tryst, Alex never looked back. His parents still thinks he debates for the academic reward.
Reid Bagwell, APDA Liaison
Reid was born in Illinois, a fact he ardently denies. He’s also half Texan, a fact he happily asserts but no one believes. Reid enjoyed high school debate greatly but found his true home on the Columbia debate team, finding parliamentary debate a style that allows him to focus on his two great loves: fair, open debate and providing a fun debating experience for everyone. He believes that intellectual advancement is more fun than winning and that the ideal debate round should be an experience where everyone comes out knowing a little more. While Reid is closing in on historic amounts of debate success, he doesn’t like to talk about this, instead focusing on making friends and being happy for other debaters when they succeed. He is also a skilled teller of his own history, known for producing wildly fraudulent accounts of his character and priorities while laughing wildly as he constructs horribly unfair cases and stratagems about how to win rounds.
Clara Spera, External Liaison
Clara was born and raised on a small, independently-owned vineyard in the Dordogne region of France. After, much to the dismay of her parents, dropping out of vocational school when she was fourteen, she made it her life-goal to one day study in the United States. She taught herself English by reading, re-reading and memorizing each volume of the Harry Potter, Lord of the Rings and Gossip Girl series, and was – somehow – accepted to Columbia after her personal statement was written in “Franglais” and was an imagined debate between the main characters of each of those series. (Her Admissions Counselor later told her that her personal statement was one of the best cultural satires he had ever read; Clara did not know what the word “satire” meant.) Since writing that essay, Clara became highly invested in debate. So, she watched The Great Debaters thirty-seven times before moving in to John Jay in September of 2008, determined to blow the Team away with her Denzel Washington impressions. Three years later, an integral part of Columbia Debate, Clara is a ferocious (and fluent) debater, thrilled to be serving as this year’s External Liaison.
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VARSITY MEMBERS 2011 – 2012
Jessica Gingrich
Jessica Gingrich is a junior at Barnard College majoring in history. She joined the Columbia Debate team spring semester 2010. The only thing tighter than her cases is her bod, and she is known throughout the circuit for her intimidating demeanor. She loves spending her weekends at tournaments and is looking forward to competing ironman at nationals. Also, she is not a novice.
Jean Lafontant
Jean Lafontant is a sophomore in the College ’14. Jean Lafontant is a neuroscience and behavior major with a possible concentration in history or political science. Jean Lafontant did policy debate in high school and joined the Columbia Parli team as a freshman. In Jean Lafontant’s spare time Jean Lafontant plays the violin and soccer. Jean Lafontant also performs on an improv team and is an RA. Jean Lafontant doesn’t like pronouns. Jean Lafontant loves the New Orleans Saints football team. Jean Lafontant loved them before everyone jumped on the bandwagon and was like “yeah I always loved the Saints”…posers. Jean Lafontant liked the Saints starting from the womb. For 9 years Jean Lafontant during his obligatory prayers before going to school asked for the Saints to win the Superbowl. 9 years later Jean Lafontant got his wish, the saints won the Superbowl. Jean Lafontant was so happy and learned a valuable lesson; when you pray for something, it comes true…. 9 years later.
Nick Phillips
Nick has been a distinguished member of the Columbia Parliamentary Debate Society ever since he left the Quiz Bowl Team because they weren’t nerdy enough. An anthropology major, he is dedicated to seeing how many times he can use the word “agency” in his papers. As a proud Connecticutian (that is the correct denonym), Nick thrives on small-town New England values, also elitism. He enjoys trivia, rugby, and a cold glass of milk with dessert. He currently holds the team record for longest term of novice eligibility.
Mary Ross
Despite having never debated before in her life, Mary Ross is indubitably Columbia Parliamentary Debate’s most illustrious member. She doesn’t want to talk too highly of herself, but she’s, uh, kind of a big deal. She has a horse named Nitska, who she likes more than most humans, is a Japanese history major, with which she probably won’t ever have a job that pays more than minimum wage (seriously, that’s almost as bad as majoring in philosophy) and loves linguistics. She was also voted CUParli Debate’s Best Dressed oh”11. Probably the highlight of her life.
Sydney Small
Sydney is from Chicago, where she suffered for years under the yoke of Model United Nations and the inability to drive until age 18. Now, she is enjoying the greener grass of the other side. In addition, she enjoys witty criticisms, Frosted Flakes, being irreligious, Christmas, surrounding herself with enough literature to force her to read some inadvertently, pretending she’s a conservative, slightly being a conservative, making to do lists about making to do lists, responding in what she believes to be highly hilarious manners when people ask her dumb questions like why are you a vegetarian, and plans to stop the world before graduation so she never has to obtain a real job seeing as she has no idea what she wants to accomplish in life – as evidenced by her economics-philosophy and cognitive science majors and her general expansive intellectual curiosity. The only thing she believes she is good at, at this point, is regret and taking on work – which says nothing about the act of actually accomplishing it.
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NOVICE CLASS 2011 – 2012
Duncan Dickerson
Duncan Dickerson attends Columbia College and will be graduating in 2014. He did debate in high school (policy, Lincoln Douglas, and public forum) and has played 2 varsity D1 Sports here at Columbia. He is from Houston, Texas though he does not have an accent. He can, however, ride a horse and shoot a gun.
Hussein Elbakri
Hussein is a freshman at Columbia College contemplating some mix of philosophy and political science on the pre-law track. He has a background in JSA, and when not furiously casing, can be found either at the gym or playing a card game in John Jay. After law school, he wants to work on education reform and feline rights through lobbying and eventually become the light-side equivalent of Karl Rove.
Rishab Guha
Rishab Guha is a freshman in Columbia College majoring in Econ with a strong minor in Heavily Undecided. He didn’t debate in high school, but once successfully convoked a Central American jungle tribe to worship him as a god. His plans for the future involve hitchhiking, learning how to pick locks, and getting lots of sleep. He is the most interesting novice on APDA. I don’t always PMC, but when I do, I prefer tight cases.
Austin Heyroth
Austin Heyroth is a freshman at Columbia College planning to major in Economic and Political Science. He comes from four years of Lincoln-Douglass and Congressional debate in high school. Austin plans on going into a career in either law or public policy/international development. In his free time, Austin enjoys playing cards or soccer and spreading misinformation about his home state of Alaska. They do really ride moose to school.
Charlotte McGuckin
Charlotte McGuckin is a freshman at Columbia College. She has never debated before. She is not sure what she wants to do with her life. Currently, her goals are to be in a demolition derby and to fly a plane. She is not interesting and has no fun facts about herself.
Dayo Osuntokun
Dayo is a Columbia College student who is really interested in very random things. These random interests include: the disappearance of helium, the amount of people who die in elevators and the fact that pennies are useless. She enjoys short walks on the sidewalk and observing other fellow homo-sapiens.
Radhe Patel
Radhe Patel is a freshman at SEAS majoring in Biomedical Engineering. Not having much actual ‘debate’ experience prior to coming to Columbia, she was an extemper and competed in speech/forensics in high school. She sings in the choir and likes taking random performance workshops in the city in her spare time. In the future she wishes to become a global health equity advocate, but for now she is content screaming down her floormates in arguments about the issue.
Patrick Sam
Patrick speaks one of the most ancient languages on earth. If you’ve seen “Gods must be Crazy”, you will now what we talking about. Too bad, he can’t debate in his native language using all kinds of clicks. He is passionate about education policies, and how they affect people’s way of thinking about the world and themselves. Besides that he enjoys going around the city talking to homeless people.
Emma Thompson
Emma is a freshman at Columbia College, majoring in Neuroscience & Behavior with a concentration in human rights. Emma debated in policy debate for four years in high school on the national circuit. She hopes to attend either Columbia or Harvard Medical School and wants to eventually become a neurosurgeon. Emma’s fun facts are that she loves bacon more than one can possibly imagine and that she has a top one hundred online Pac-Man score.
Vivian Tsai
Vivian Tsai, a first year at Barnard College, was born in Taiwan and grew up in Northern California. She is absolutely new to New York and the east coast weather, and is awfully excited to be able to feel snow for the very first time in a couple of months. She is passionate in creative writing, economics and political science, but cannot make up her mind for a possible major. Without any debate background, she did “We the People”, an awesome congressional simulation program, in high school, and is a proud member of Unit Five, focusing on various U.S. Supreme Court cases and the Bill of Rights. She is also currently an OCM for TASA (Taiwanese American Student Association), and serves on the CIRCA academic affairs team and the CIRCA marketing team. She is a happy person in general and loves to go on adventures in New York City.
Sibo Wang
Sibo Wang is a sophomore in Columbia College studying economics and political science. His academic interests include political economy, international relations, and critical theory. He enjoys discovering new restaurants, reading about current events in the news, and playing the devil’s advocate in late-night discussions with friends.
Hong Yi
Hong Yi is a freshman from the Columbia College class of 2015 who recently decided to join the Columbia Parliamentary Debate Society as a way to further develop his confidence in public speaking and to diversify his debating experiences. He is interested in studying Political Science — Economics, though History is also a highly plausible option. Throughout high school, most of his debate experience has been composed of Model UN conferences and practices in addition to some exposure to British Parliamentary style of debate. In addition to debate, he has also been playing golf competitively for over 9 years, he continues to do MUN, loves to play table tennis, epic video games, TV shows like The Big Bang Theory, House, and Community, as well as reading dystopian/political fiction.
Michael Ying
Michael Ying is a new recruit on the Columbia Debate Team and was happy to be inducted into this Forensic Brotherhood. He is new to the team and is eager to get his feet wet debating. Having debated in high school he is excited to be apart of an activity he deeply enjoys and has been a source for many of his friendships. Michael is currently considering a major in Economics and Political Science, and as a Columbia College student is well on his way to becoming nocturnal. When not debating he fantasies about joining the foreign service and traveling around the world. In his spare time he plays Starcraft and enjoys long walks on the beach.
Adele Zhang
Adele Zhang was born in the States, is Canadian and up till now has resided in Hong Kong. She is a Freshman at Barnard College who, after seeing those awesome posters with Mulan on them, decided to tryout for Parliamentary Debate. The only debate experience that she has had was MUN back in high school, but let’s be real, its not really debate experience. Economics and History are two of her passions, and she plans on honoring her family by becoming a lawyer. Her real desire though is to become the next Tina Fey and hopes by living in New York she could not-so-secretly stalk her until the restraining order arrives. Her favorite movie is varsity blues and one time she met John Stamos on the plane. He didn’t comment on her prettiness. Another time she punched a girl in the face, and it was awesome.
