Community Corner

Livingston Debate Team Sees Success At Harvard Tournament

This year's event brought together nearly 5,000 debaters from across the globe – including several standouts from Livingston.

(Omega Speech and Debate Club)

LIVINGSTON, NJ — A Livingston-based debate club recently turned in a successful appearance at a high-profile tournament.

The Omega Speech and Debate Club delivered outstanding performances at the 2025 Harvard National Speech and Debate Tournament.

One of the most prestigious and competitive debate tournaments in the world, this year's event brought together nearly 5,000 debaters from across the globe – including several from Livingston.

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All six Public Forum high school debate teams trained by Omega Speech and Debate Club delivered outstanding performances in the preliminary rounds and successfully advanced to the elimination rounds.

Omega debaters advancing to the elimination rounds included: Michael Jiang, David Yu, Alan Li, Kai Gao, Alyssa Zhang, Avni Dusad, Gavin Zhao, Hoiyuen (Kevin) Chen, Olivia Mei, Tim Volkov, and Daniel Zhang.

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The club was established in 2020 by then-high school freshman and now Harvard College sophomore, Matthew Zhang.

Throughout the competition, Zhang and fellow Omega coaches Ryan Jiang (Harvard '27), and Dennis Liu (UPenn '26) provided support to the debaters, observing rounds, conducting analyses and leading nightly recap sessions at the team’s hotel.

For more information about Omega Speech and Debate Club, or to register for this year’s in-person summer debate camp (August 11 to 22), visit their website here.

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