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Summer Endeavors: DA Alumni Take Center Stage in Debate, Dance

By Dylan Howlett

1,523 words   |   6-minute read

We learned last year — through competitive rock climbing, archaeological digs, water-quality research and more — that Durham Academy students don’t see summer as a time of pure idling. It is a time of action, of growth, of experiences moral, happy and productive.

The summer of 2024 was no different, both for current students and recent alumni. This year’s opening installment of a series showcasing the mission-driven summer life highlights performances both award-winning and evocative — on debate and dance stages some 1,400 miles apart.

Welcome back to Summer Endeavors.

William Brown ’24 & Ben Hodges ’24

2024 National Speech & Debate Association National Champions, Public Forum Debate

Ben Hodges ’24 doesn’t care for public speaking. “I’m more on the reserved side,” he said. William Brown ’24 agrees. “I’m not particularly the biggest fan of public speaking,” he said. During his ninth grade year, Hodges unintentionally signed up for a DA Speech & Debate interest meeting. Crawford Leavoy, the program’s director, followed up when he noticed Hodges didn’t attend the meeting. “Do you want to talk about debate?” he asked. “No,” Hodges said. During his 10th grade year, Hodges participated in his first-ever debate tournament. He lost every round. Brown didn’t have any real debate experience until last fall, when Hodges invited him to be his partner.

And so it was, naturally, in June, at the world’s largest academic competition and the country’s oldest nationwide debate tournament, in a contest featuring more than 6,000 middle and high school students at the Iowa Events Center in Des Moines, that Ben Hodges and William Brown became national champions in public forum debate.

Their ascent, however, is not as unlikely as it seems. Ben’s father, Doug, could sense the budding argumentation skills of his younger son by the time he was 8 years old. Ben would fire off rejoinder after rejoinder in his more quarrelsome moments, and Doug would inevitably shrug. “I love you too much to argue,” he’d say. After the defeats at his first debate tournament, Hodges went to work. He watched online rounds that had been recorded during the pandemic and committed himself to researching his own evidence, his own arguments, his own confidence. “Once I kind of get into that flow and know that I’m kind of tapping into this wide base of knowledge that I’ve prepared for months and months,” said Hodges, now a first year at UNC-Chapel Hill, “I can kind of tune all of that out and focus on what I know I’m best at.”

Hodges partnered with Veer Prakash ’23, an experienced varsity debater whom Hodges said accelerated his growth. By the end of his junior year, Hodges reached the national final of public forum debate. He lost. Now he needed a new partner to help him return to nationals — and win.

His choice, naturally, was Brown, whose inexperience on the debate stage belied his potential. “He’s one of the smartest and hardest-working people I know,” Hodges said. The pair formed an endearing contrast onstage, the towering Hodges looming beside Brown and his shoulder-length hair that became the envy of fellow debaters, many of whom asked him for his hair care routine. (Nightly shower, mousse, scrunched-up hair and “hope for the best,” he says with a laugh.) Brown embraced the role of helping Hodges win nationals, all the while breaking the searing tension of debate with all manner of jokes, shticks and bits. “It’s some ethereal vibe about him,” Hodges said of Brown, “that helps you bring yourself away.”

It is a timely, and precious, luxury during nationals week. “It is rough,” said Brown, a first year at Georgetown University. “You’re essentially always on.” The resolution, or debate prompt, remains the same throughout the tournament: The United States should establish a comprehensive bilateral trade agreement with the European Union served as this year’s resolution. The competition takes place across 16 rounds in five days, starting with preliminary rounds that give way to elimination rounds before the final on Friday. Brown and Hodges navigated their 15 rounds — while arguing for both the “Pro” and the “Con” along the way — to advance to the final.

On Thursday, from lunchtime until about 10 p.m., they prepared. Brown and Hudges huddled with DA’s other competing public forum teams — Alex Huang ’24 and Michael Hansen ’24, Caleb Chen ’24 and Jack Vail ’24 — in the lobby of their Des Moines hotel, sharpening their arguments and testing strategies. They believed arguing the “Con” side would allow them to appeal to a sense of hope and change and humanity that could sway the judges — and speak to their own authentic misgivings about trade agreements. They found the opposing finalist’s affirmative argument and penned sweeping, thorough responses. Later that night, they swapped out one of their arguments for what they felt would be a more persuasive tack. They were ready.

The final is a cauldron. The crowd swells to more than 1,000 people, many of whom are inclined to react more boisterously than during a standard debate round. Each team offers a constructive, or opening, argument, followed by rebuttals from both sides, plus three-minute summary speeches and two-minute final focus remarks that serve as their closing arguments. Brown delivered DA’s constructive with aplomb, but he felt less steady during crossfire — or questioning — with his opponent. He flipped the script.

“How does investment help the average person?” Brown asked. His opponent suggested the investment would “filter down.” Brown furrowed his brow and peered toward the ceiling of the events center. “So your argument,” Brown said, “is a defense of ’80s-era, trickle-down economics, is what I’m hearing.” Applause erupted. “The crowd kind of ate it up,” Hodges said.

Momentum had swung their way, and for good. DA would win nine of 13 ballots to capture the national championship. “The weight was lifted off of my shoulders,” said Hodges, who became the first public forum debater to lose the national championship round one year and win it the next. “The world got a little brighter for quite a while.”

 

It did, too, for Brown, who won a national championship in his first full year of debate. “Debate has given me this really cool ability on every sort of argument to not only see both sides,” he said, “but to also see the reasons why different people would believe different sides and prioritize those sides.”

On a summer’s day in Des Moines, both Brown and Hodges prioritized the winning side — their distaste for public speaking notwithstanding. They love debate too much not to argue.

 

Julia Phu ’20

Performer with Ronald K. Brown’s EVIDENCE dance company

Julia Phu ’20 has danced for as long as she can remember: in her childhood, as a student in Laci McDonald’s Upper School dance studio, and at Virginia Commonwealth University as a dance and choreography minor. She graduated from VCU this spring with a degree in exercise science, the field in which she is pursuing a full-time position. It will not come, however, at the expense of dance. “I’m still trying to keep the dance thing going,” Phu said in a phone interview. “I’m giving myself a couple of years to make this happen.”

She wasted little time. Phu landed a place in the American Dance Festival’s summer intensive program, a four-week immersion for pre-professional dancers. “You are dancing the entire day,” says Phu, whose father, Thomas, is an Upper School history teacher and JV boys soccer coach. “Super maximal effort. It’s really an intensive experience.”

But it wasn’t the only dance project she would pursue this summer. McDonald asked Phu if she would have any interest in auditioning for a community production with Ronald K. Brown’s Evidence, a Brooklyn-based dance company. Phu earned a part.

The piece, titled “On Earth Together,” featured community members who rehearsed at night to accommodate their regular work schedules. The youngest performer was 9 years old, the oldest in their late 70s. “It really was a community piece,” Phu said. Her background in dance had primarily included performances in ballet and contemporary techniques. “On Earth Together” featured West African-inspired movement, a tradition in which Phu only had limited experience. “Getting to learn that technique of dance was awesome for me,” she said. “The process was super friendly.”

It was also familiar. About halfway through rehearsals, Phu thought she recognized a fellow community member. She conferred with Kristin Danielle-Taylor Duncan, a dancer and choreographer who founded her own dance company. Is there any chance, Phu asked, you know who that is? “Yeah,” Duncan said. “She goes to DA.” The dancer in question was Mahaugony Howard ’25, who — along with Naomi Gibson ’25 — also performed in the community piece at McDonald’s recommendation. “It was cool to also make that connection,” Phu said. “It’s such a small world when you think about it.”

Her world has become equal parts smaller and richer since she moved back to Durham after her college graduation. Phu has three projects lined up with the North Carolina Dance Festival, an annual touring showcase of modern and contemporary choreography by North Carolina artists. She’s participating in a friend’s dance thesis at Duke University. And thanks to a memorable intensive and community performance, Phu is still keeping the dance thing going.

“It’s been my favorite summer ever,” she said.

Know any Durham Academy students, families or educators who had a mission-driven summer?

Tell us! Email communications@da.org with more info.