By Keona Munowenyu

Coached by both Kelsey Johnson and Krista Hulderman, the Student Congress team here at Sheyenne last month became back-to-back Student Congress Champions on November 6th. They have also reclaimed the North Dakota Roughrider District Congress Sweepstakes Award for the second consecutive year on November 7th.

The Student Congress team isn’t unfamiliar with success as they were the first Championship Sheyenne High School has witnessed.

The road to success this year could have been predicted by their strength this season.

After their first tournament at East Congress, Sheyenne came back with 10 awards out of 18 competitors securing four championship awards: Senate from Keona Munowenyu, House I from Sherry Yan, House II from Vidyaa Lav, and House IV from Reagan Koppelman.

Regan Koppelman is a new member of Student Congress, in his freshman year who has remarked that he enjoys Student Congress because it helps him “improve on how he speaks for debate and also speech later in the year.”

Accolades continued to roll in at the team’s West Congress tournament to attain a total of 12 awards. Student Congress came back with five total championship awards in nearly every house.

In House I, senior Sherry Yan, a recurring champion this season, attained their second championship along with senior Christine Nwaigwe.

House II saw freshman Vidyaa Lav champion again for the second time this season.

In House III freshman Hosna Dawlaty championed.

Finally, in House IV Freshman Reagan Koppelman became a champion foreshadowing his future State Student Congress success.

The road to the State Student Congress Championship and Roughrider District Congress Sweepstakes Award was a promising one, and it proved in the very end to be so.

At the individual level, this team took three individual championship awards: Jonah Follingstad earned first place in House VI, Christine Nwaigwe earned first place in House II, and Reagan Koppelman was voted Presiding Officer for House V.

As a whole, nearly every individual came from the State meet placing in their chambers.

After the State Student Congress tournament, the team competed competitively in National Qualifiers with Keona Munowenyu qualifying in the North Dakota Roughrider Senate and Grace Widjaja qualifying in the North Dakota Roughrider House for the National Speech & Debate Association’s national tournament. Both individuals will attend the national tournament in Louisville, Kentucky, in June.