North Star Debate

Hi my name is Iyana Trotman and I am a senior in HighSchool at North Star Academy in Newark,NJ. For the past 2 years, I have enjoyed varsity policy debate on the national circuit. This has allowed for me to travel across the country doing policy debate and competing against the other top teams in the country in places like Texas, Illinois, New York, Georgia, and California.

This year, my partner Sean Odom and I have done well on the circuit from me being top speaker at the Greenhill Fall Classic and ending in Quarterfinals, second speaker at the NY Fall Faceoff at Bronx Science HighSchool and a QuarterFinalist, 4th Speaker at the Glenbrooks Speech and Debate tournament as well as an OctoFinalist, and Champion of the Mamaroneck HighSchool Tournament. We are also ranked #8 in the country on the national coaches poll. This is an outstanding feat especially because we are one of the few students of color competing in policy on the national circuit.

At the tournaments that we have attended, we have qualified for Tournament of Champions bids where we have received a bid for at every tournament that we have attended. It is an extremely competitive tournament in late April. that you have to qualify for with at least 2 bids. However, our school North Star Academy located in an urban inner city environment does not have the funds to get us there. This tournament is an important opportunity for us and we appreciate all of the support that we can get.