Waves Debate Team Rallies Success at National Competition

Seaver College’s debate team has returned from a successful run at the St. Ignatius Dialogues hosted by the University of San Francisco. Four students earned top placements while engaging in compelling debates on topics centered on Gen Z’s role in cultivating hope and human dignity. The accomplishments are particularly notable as this marked each Pepperdine team member’s first year competing.

Among Seaver’s top finishers were Lainey Power, who earned sixth place overall, and Kyanna Hainline, who placed tenth place overall. In the novice division, Romina Phillips placed first, while Nikki Quartuccio earned third place.

Examining sharply relevant themes, teams of two to three unpacked generational characteristics through the lens of Gen Z’s evolving slang in round one, while analyzing the younger generation’s approach to romance and dating in the following round. In the final round, teams tackled how humanity can cultivate hope and dignity in an era increasingly involved with AI and robotics.

L to R: Benjamin Fleming; Phillips; Power; Quartuccio; Hainline

“What stood out to me the most is just how much the Pepperdine Debate team lived the values they espoused,” says Abi Smith, director of debate and associate instructor of teaching of debate and argumentation. “Seeing young people like our students, who are willing and enthusiastic about testing ideas and truly listening to different perspectives, is what keeps me inspired in my job.” 

Students celebrated the St. Ignatius Dialogues’s  unconventional style, where rules permitted one to agree with their partners, concede certain points, and even incorporate a peer’s arguments into their own. Though members were judged on the quality of their arguments, the setting overall fostered intellectual humility giving students the opportunity to sharpen their communication skills while remaining open to and appreciative of others’ creative approaches. Overall, students agreed that the event thoughtfully blended competitive rigor with community building.

“There’s a uniquely formative opportunity that comes from being in collaboration,” says Philips, who gleaned real-world value of connecting with fellow Gen Z students about common challenges. “The debate’s format really allowed me to stop and process what I was hearing and where the other teams were coming from as well, which is a really useful skill that I'll be able to apply in the future.”

Set to pursue a career in law, Quartuccio credits debate as a valued training ground for a legal vocation due to its critical thinking and rhetorical skill-building. “Our debate program at Pepperdine is really based on collaboration and learning from other people,” says Quartuccio. “At this tournament, we're really able to embody that aspect of our program. Working on highly-relevant topics and collaboration-based solutions is a really good way for me to prepare for my future career.” 

These recent accolades build on a wave of success for Seaver’s Debate team, including earning their first national championship this April. More recently, the college sent one team of first-year debaters to compete at Rutgers University to dialogue about food justice. Ending as the top-ranked team after preliminary rounds were Pepperdine’s very own first-year debaters Elijah Badgett who is studying political science; Elyanna Lavine, political Science major with a rhetoric and leadership minor; as well as Naomi Mashak, history political science double major. 

The Pepperdine Waves Debate team is a co-curricular program housed in the Communication Division of Seaver College welcoming a range of majors who seek to hone their ability to engage in informed discourse and articulate ideas effectively.

Learn more about Waves Debate.