30 Ransom Everglades LOG FALL 2025 ‘So Electric on Stage’ Claudia Colina ’25 stood backstage getting miked up for the final round of the 2025 National Speech and Debate Tournament in Des Moines, Iowa, in July when a man carrying a backpack climbed, uninvited, onto the stage and began shouting. Someone urged the participants to “run away” as the man began to open his backpack. Confused and frightened, students and attendees rushed to the exits. Colina, separated from her Ransom Everglades peers, beelined out the back door. The man was tackled on stage and no weapons were found. No one was injured, and the threat was neutralized in moments. But because of the scare, organizers postponed the final round to the following day. Colina, who had been moments away from competing for a national title, struggled to recover from the emotional impact of the incident. She, like many others, felt shaken and unsettled. But then her coaches, teammates, RE parents and chaperones stepped in. Everyone helped her prepare for the rescheduled final round, assisting with hair, makeup, shoes, snacks, water and general support. “There was a lot of love at the root of it all,” Colina recalled. “It was very heartwarming to see the team, not only care for each other, but … watching me, supporting me, that meant the world. It really does say so much about Ransom Everglades and the values, because it really is like a family … That is very, very important, especially when you’re in a tournament and the stakes are so high.” The stakes were, indeed, high. This was Colina’s last performance representing Ransom Everglades, and she had advanced to speech and debate’s most elite stage. Competing last among the six finalists in Dramatic Interpretation, she finally got her chance to compete a day after the security incident and performed an achingly moving piece called “Legitimate Kid,” which described the challenging personal journey of a Latina woman navigating cultural expectations. When she finished, her RE teammates, sitting in the first row, erupted in cheers. “We needed to be one group, one performer,” RE speech and debate coach Kate Hamm said, “and she felt that energy on stage.” Moments later, she was crowned national champion in the event, a joyful and almost inconceivable conclusion to a traumatic 24 hours. It also brought an unforgettable end to her extraordinary career in high school speech and debate at Ransom Everglades. “I was in disbelief,” said Colina, who was immmediately joined by jubilant coaches Hamm and Justinmar Perez. I was thinking, ‘We did it. We did it!’ This is all I’ve ever wanted, all I’ve ever worked for … It was so sweet and all I could do was just cry and thank God.” Colina’s journey to national recognition in speech and debate began when she arrived at Ransom Everglades as a ninth grader from the Coral Way K-8 Center. A former Breakthrough Miami Scholar, one of her earliest memories at the upper school was attending a speech and debate “boot camp,” where she met warm and welcoming members of the varsity team. Interested in social justice and policy, Colina understood speech and debate to be the perfect outlet. Her only question was: Which discipline would she pursue? She tried Congressional Debate, but didn’t find her footing until she discovered Claudia Colina ’25 caps incredible speech and debate career with national title StudentNews
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