Towson students Dayvon Love and Deven Cooper win CEDA National Championship. They bested more than 185 teams from across the country in college debate’s version of the US Open. Past winners include Northwestern, Emory and Harvard. Sophomores Deverick Murray and Adam Jackson qualified for the elimination rounds of the same championship tournament for their second year in a row.
Camelia Hostinar and Simonida Subotic won the national Grand Prize in the Great Debaters Video Debate Contest. Each of these great debaters graduated in May 2008 and served as commencement speaker for her college (Liberal Arts and Business and Economics. In the fall, Simonida will attend the John F. Kennedy School at Harvard University and Camelia will begin her PhD work at the University of Minnesota on a full-ride fellowship.
Towson Speech and Debate hosted six college competitions and put on over a dozen on-campus exhibitions. Members of the team logged hundreds of hours mentoring, coaching, teaching and judging middle school and high school students in the Baltimore Urban Debate League (www.budl.org).
Towson Speech and Debate Awards and Recognition
2007-2008
National Champions - Cross-Examination Debate Association (Dayvon Love and Deven Cooper)
Grand Prize Winners - Great Debaters Video Debate Contest (Simonida Subotic and Camelia Hostinar), www.princetonreview.com/greatdebaters
Finalists – Great Debaters Video Debate Contest (Barbora Ondruskova and Andreea Militaru), www.princetonreview.com/greatdebaters
Elimination Round Qualifiers - National Debate Tournament (Dayvon Love and Deven Cooper)
Elimination Round Qualifiers - Cross-Examination Debate Association (Adam Jackson and Deverick Murray)
Finalists – West Point Junior Varsity Debate Tournament (Benjamin Morgan and Hong Mei Pang)
Semi-Finalists – University of Richmond Debate Tournament (Dayvon Love and Deven Cooper)
President’s Award - Baltimore College Debate
College of Liberal Arts Commencement Speaker (Camelia Hostinar), Towson University, May 22, 2008
College of Business and Economics Commencement Speaker (Simonida Subotic), Towson University, May 23, 2008
Media Appearances
Finding Their Voices, Karen Houppert, Washington Post, August 26, 2007, http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/08/21/AR2007082101715.html
Towson U. Debaters Take National Championship; First African-American Duo to Win Title are Grads of City High Schools, Nick Madigan, Baltimore Sun, March 26, 2008
On Time with Kai Jackson, WJZ-TV, April 20, 2008, http://wjz.com/video/?id=37970@wjz.dayport.com
Life Lessons: Deven and Dayvon, Jenny Glick WMAR, April 9, 2008, http://www.abc2news.com/news/local/story.aspx?content_id=66B8A53D-886E-4018-B3CA-90D0321135B5&gsa=true
Towson University 2008 CEDA Debate Champions, 11 TV Hill, WBAL-TV, May 25, 2008, http://www.wbaltv.com/video/16403545/index.html
Echoes of 1968: Baltimore Students Redefine the Rules of Debate, National Public Radio’s Tell Me More with Michelle Martin, April 7, 2008 available at:
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=89427144
Public Appearances
Recognition Ceremony with Governor Martin O’Malley, Annapolis, April 14, 2008
Recognition Ceremony with US Senator Ben Cardin and US Representatives John Sarbanes and Elijah Cummings, Washington DC, April 30, 2008
Middle School Awards Ceremony, Baltimore Urban Debate League, Baltimore, MD, May 10, 2008, http://www.budl.org/news_article?id=438
8th Annual High School Awards Banquet, Baltimore Urban Debate League, Baltimore, MD, May 18, 2008, http://www.budl.org/news_article?id=440