Lulu Burnside

Ascend Academy - Congressional Debate Coach

Lulu is an incoming freshman at Dartmouth College and a graduated senior from Durham Academy in North Carolina. She has been competing in Congress for 4 years and has so far collected 20 TOC bids during her career. Lulu was the captain of her Congressional debate team, and she helped coach her younger and older teammates for the past 2 years. She has been a finalist at the Tournament of Champions (twice), the Florida Blue Key Tournament (twice), the Sunvitational, the Princeton Invitational, the Yale Invitational, the Barkley Forum Tournament, the Isidore Newman Invitational, the UK Season Opener, and the NCFL Grand Nationals (twice). She was also the state champion of North Carolina and has ranked as highly as 1st in her state and 3rd in the USA. Lulu’s students (including her novices) have been in final rounds such as the Isidore Newman Invitational, the Cabot Classic, the New York City Invitational at Bronx Science, and the Princeton Invitational. Lulu is proudest of helping a majority-female team develop more confidence and skill.

Lulu is excited to help debaters at Ascend clarify their speech structure while also helping to develop the important skills of refutation and crystallization. To Lulu, Congress should always be a debate event first and foremost; however, she appreciates that the event is becoming more accessible for anyone to understand. As a debater from North Carolina who has competed nationwide, Lulu understands the importance of regionality, and is excited to help students adapt to whatever circuit they may be competing in. There are clear strategies to success that vary in different regions of the country, but while following those, students should maintain and develop their own personal, unique styles. When Lulu isn’t at a tournament, she loves cooking, sewing, watching Gossip Girl, and jamming out to some country tunes. As a 2 time Ascend alum, Lulu can’t wait to join Ascend this summer as a coach!