Texas Ambassador Great Debate adds new Mexico team, inspires growth and leadership for its large cohort

The 2026 Texas Ambassador Great Debate, held June 27-30 at St. Mary’s University in San Antonio, brought together more than 170 students, assembled into nine different teams representing Texan and Mexican regions prior to the four-day competition. 

This year’s was a first for NHI’s Texas-hosted Four-Day Great Debates in that two teams from Mexico — hailing from Guadalajara and Saltillo – joined the seven Texas teams in the competition. Guadalajara debuted at the 2025 edition of the tournament, while Saltillo made its debut in 2026. 

“I loved to welcome yet another new region to the Ambassador!” said Isabella Sada Nieto, NHI’s Director of Four-Day Great Debates. “This program is now becoming the place for new local communities to forge their path, establish their regional identity, and bring their ideas to a international forum. It’s crazy to see how quickly this program is growing and to hear the conversations come from other NHIers about what new communities they want to bring to the program.” 

The San Antonio team took top honors for the second straight year, repeating their 2025 triumph, while El Paso took second place and Austin finished in third. 

“When they got to their tournament, you saw a different side of them unlock. You sawthem understand like their purpose and their wanting to do well,” recalled Marina Mefrige, one of the San Antonio team’s head coaches. “Een if they don’t do well, you still see their determination to want to be uplifting for those that like did move on.” 

“My expectation wasn’t to make it far at all,” said Julio Zelaya of Central Catholic High School, whose Cross Examination team finished in second. “It was just to learn and to meet people. As training started, I would make jokes that we’d have a San Antonio finals and we were gonna win … and once we got there, to see those thoughts come to life was beyond my expectation of what I thought was going to happen.” 

Jacob Guerra, a classmate of Zelaya’s at Central Catholic who was on the first-place Cross Examination team, added that San Antonio’s success in that category and others showed how hard they worked — and the whole experience helped him realize his leadership abilities. 

“Overall, it built me as a leader,” he said. “I feel a lot more confident sharing my voice, sharing my opinion, and I think that’s what NHI gives us … NHI has this consistent love for the people it brings in. We were going into it kind of as rivals, but all of us you know came together as a family purely because NHI has given so much to us.” 

Brooklyn Tapia, the winner in the Extemporaneous Speaking category, from Young Women’s Leadership Academy in San Antonio, said going from preparing with teammates to competing gave her confidence that she’ll take into future LDZ programs and now, potentially, a career in law. 

“Now that we are in this time period of our life, we are really building those developmental skills,” Tapia said. “So I think through building that confidence, now I have the ability to know that … I can build better things for my community, but also that I don’t have to do it alone. I can do it with all these people who have this common goal, people who have learned and went through the developmental process that I have, and I understand that change is going to happen with everyone.

“It’’s really important to understand that everyone is an asset to the community,” Tapia added. “Everyone can bring something to the table, and something greater is going to be made if we are all working together.” 

Mefrige was impressed by how all teams came together to forge one large, supportive NHI community by the tournament’s end. 

“They just overall found their community,” she said. “They found their family. They made so many friends. They understood what they were there for in the end.” 

Winners included: 

Cross Examination

• 1st Place: Jacob Guerra, Central Catholic High School, San Antonio, Texas and Ashley Siebenaler, BASIS San Antonio Shavano, San Antonio, Texas (San Antonio)
• 2nd Place: Riley Lara, Young Women’s Leadership Academy, San Antonio, Texas and Julio Zelaya, Central Catholic High School, San Antonio, Texas (San Antonio)
• All-State Leader: Felix Campbell, Central Catholic High School, San Antonio, Texas (San Antonio)
• All-State Member: Deven Rivera, Robert Vela High School, Edinburg, Texas (RGV)

Oratory

• 1st Place: Carlos Ortiz, Colegio Ignacio Zaragoza, Saltillo, Mexico (Saltillo)
• 2nd Place: Pamela Delgado, Charles H. Milby High School, Houston, Texas (Houston)
• All-State: Victor Munoz, Coronado High School, El Paso, Texas (El Paso)

Mock Trial

• 1st Place: Emerson Lowenfield, Coronado High School, El Paso, Texas, and Presley Echaniz, Coronado High School, El Paso, Texas (El Paso)
• 2nd Place: Lainey Gonzales, Young Women’s Leadership Academy, San Antonio, Texas, and Leilah Villarreal, Incarnate Word High School, San Antonio, Texas (San Antonio)
• All-State Attorney: Jacob Garcia, Veterans Memorial High School, Corpus Christi, Texas (Corpus Christi)
• All-State Witness: Lucas Espejo, TMI Episcopal, San Antonio, Texas (San Antonio)

Extemporaneous Speaking

• 1st Place: Brooklyn Tapia, Young Women’s Leadership Academy, San Antonio, Texas (San Antonio)
• 2nd Place: Aliyah Valenzuela, Young Women’s Leadership Academy, San Antonio, Texas (San Antonio)
• All-State: Joselyn Valdez, Young Women’s Leadership Academy, San Antonio, Texas (San Antonio)

Athenaeum 

• 1st Place: Evalina Estrada, St. Michael’s Catholic Preparatory School, Austin, Texas (Austin); Carlos Marroquin, Saint Joseph Academy, Brownsville, Texas (Tip of Texas); and Sonushree Savanur, Rouse High School, Leander, Texas (Austin) 
• 2nd Place: Lena Stoltzman, Coronado High School, El Paso, Texas (El Paso); Regina Reyes, McAllen High School, McAllen, Texas (RGV); Lucille Lara, Leander High School, Leander, Texas (Austin); and Humberto Vazquez, Colegio Ignacio Zaragoza, Saltillo, Mexico (Saltillo)
• All-State: Paloma Almaguer, McAllen High School, McAllen, Texas (RGV); Lucia Aceves, San Juan Diego Catholic High School, Austin, Texas (Austin); Pablo Casillas, Instituto de Ciencias, Zapopan, Mexico (Guadalajara); and Olivia Rojo, Liberal Arts and Science Academy, Austin, Texas (Austin) 

Athenaeum Team Awards

• 1st Place: Austin
• 2nd Place: RGV
• 3rd Place: Guadalajara

Transformation Awards

Austin: Ryan Treviño (McCallum High School, Austin, Texas)

Corpus Christi: Gabrielle Guido (Mary Carroll High School, Corpus Christi, Texas)

El Paso: Amir Alchalabi (El Paso High School, El Paso, Texas)

Guadalajara: Andrés Jiménez (Instituto de Ciencias, Zapopan, Mexico)

Houston: Jonathan Siahaan (DeBakey High School for Health Professions, Houston, Texas) 

Rio Grande Valley: Julian Agnero (Robert Vela High School, Edinburg Texas) 

Saltillo: Oscar Villalobos (Colegio Ignacio Zaragoza, Saltillo, Mexico) 

San Antonio: Luke Ramos (Sidney Lanier High School, San Antonio, Texas) and Isaiaz Lizalde (Central Catholic High School, San Antonio, Texas)

Tip of Texas: Eduardo Villalon (Jubilee Brownsville, Brownsville, Texas) 

Fundamental Cup

(given to the team who most embodied NHI’s Fundamentals to Have Fun, Be Positive, Create the Opportunity, & Lead by Inspiring Others)

• Saltillo

The Texas Ambassador Great Debate is made possible in part by support from the Bezos Family Foundation and State Farm.