On April 12, eight debate teams from around the world gathered to compete in the final debate of the 13th Annual Bickel & Brewer/New York University International Public Policy Forum (IPPF). West’s team placed third, ranking them among the best of the best in debate.

“The International Public Policy Forum competition is divided into a couple of parts,” junior Catherine Zhang said. “The teams that wish to compete submit essays, and from those essays, 64 teams are chosen to compete in single-elimination written debates.”

The final eight teams, also known as the “Elite Eight,” received an all-expenses paid trip to New York. While they were there, they engaged in oral debates over nuclear proliferation in front of a panel of judges.

“We basically read through the past debates that our opponents had had and then we wrote new arguments to prepare,” senior Samuel Wang said. “For the competitions that we had in the middle of the year, because we had multiple rounds throughout, we essentially had to stay after school a couple days each time to write the essays and research them, and figure out how to rebut out opponents’ arguments.”

The team’s success at the IPPF finals rounded out other recent accomplishments at the Texas Forensics Association State Tournament in March and at the Lone Star District Tournament earlier this month.

“We had a fantastic weekend,” debate coach Rhonda Smith said. “We’re so glad that all our hard work finally paid off.”