“You are now leaving Virginia.” While manny Langley students viewing this sign may have inadvertently taken a wrong-turn on the beltway, the debate and forensics members are properly en route. Next weekend, the team will be going to its first out-of-state tournament for the Columbia Debate Invitational.

“It’s a three-day tournament, so it’s the first time the team will be staying overnight. We unfortunately are going to be able to take all of our members since this is the first year,” said Forensics captain, senior Samantha Kobor. “We’re hoping it will become a tradition so that we can raise funds for it in the future and have more students attend.”

The tournament will be hosted byColumbiaUniversity. Debaters will participate in Lincoln-Douglas debates or PFD, otherwise known as public forum debate. The PFD issue at hand has already been determined: whether or not the cost of a college education outweighs the benefits. Conversely, forensics participants will be able to choose a topic of their own interest to orate.

“It will be the most competitive tournament we have been to,” said Debate Co-captain, senior Sabrina Khan.  “Still, that doesn’t mean we won’t bring it and give it our best shot.”