NHI to team up with longtime partner Austin College for 2023 Texas Great Debate

Once again, the road to the National Hispanic Institute’s fabled Silver Cup will go through Sherman.

NHI’s Executive Vice President, Nicole Nieto, was at Austin College on Friday to meet with Michael Deen, the school’s Dean of Students, in advance of the school resuming its host role for the vital Texas Great Debate competition.

For many NHIers, the team speech and debate tournament — involving major cities and regions throughout Texas who prepare during the latter part of the school year, then gather for four days of competition — is their introduction to NHI ideas and values. The 2023 edition of the tournament, the first at Austin College since the pre-pandemic edition in 2019, places the Sherman-based school in a more familiar hosting role.

In 2022, Austin College served as home for the Texas LDZ — fitting given that it was LDZ’s 40th year and that Austin College has served as an NHI host institution for more than three decades. But Austin College is best known among NHI alumni as the place where young Texas-based leaders between their freshman and sophomore years of high school begin their NHI journeys.

“The Ida Green Theater has been completely renovated and awaits the thunderous Texas Great Debate official role call in June,” Nieto revealed, regarding next year’s competition. “Preparations are underway for a grand return!”

“Austin College is extremely proud to continue hosting NHI students on its campus next summer,” Deen remarked. “We welcome the return of the legendary Texas Great Debate where we get to hear our future’s best and brightest take center stage in a meeting of the minds on our future.”

Isabella Sada-Nieto, who has experienced Austin College as both an NHI student and a college student, shared observations about how the two institutions are well aligned to collaborate once again.

“As an NHIer and Roo, I always find myself in awe that both communities work together,” she noted. “It makes me proud to be a part of an institution that supports NHI in the same way I do.”

“NHIers are community people; there’s no better place to host an NHI program than Austin College,” she added. “Austin College prides itself in the efforts it makes to diversify the backgrounds and stories of the students, staff, and faculty. As an investor in NHI’s mission myself, I find that Austin College not only supports NHI but has a lot of the same vibes as NHI.”

“As a member of NHI and the Roo community, I am very proud of this partnership,” she observed. “I went from attending my Great Debate and learning to find my voice, to becoming a student and learning to find myself.”

Students interested in becoming part of the Texas Great Debate, which will run from June 8-11, can apply on the NHI website. The early admissions deadline is Oct. 7, while the regular admissions deadline is fast approaching on Nov. 11.