By Dan Olsen & Melanie Brender
Howard Akumiah’s transformative experience through the Michigan State University Debate Team propelled his success after graduation in 2015. The program is why he chose MSU in the first place. His focus now? Building a national championship team that cultivates the next generation of entrepreneurs, critical thinkers and innovators.
Earning championships takes commitment and investment. Akumiah has generously provided both since graduating in 2015 with a degree in International Relations from MSU’s James Madison College. His generosity, which totals $300,000 to date, is helping fuel the debate team’s drive to achieve a fourth national title. Akumiah has also given generously of his time to help strategize with the team, which is housed within the Honors College.
“Policy debate taught me invaluable lessons in critical thinking, organization, and strategy that have served me tremendously in my personal and professional life,” Akumiah said. “I’m honored to support MSU Debate and help more Spartans have similar experiences.”
Akumiah, a 31-year-old entrepreneur and angel investor, received MSU’s Young Alumni Award in 2022 and joined the MSU Research Foundation Board of Directors in 2023. He established Betty Labs, a startup focused on building consumer social apps for sports fans. He credits connections he made as a Spartan with launching his career, including during a student internship at Google and as an MSU debater.
“We are tremendously proud of Howard as one of our debate team alumni and we are equally grateful for his support and generosity which is helping to provide the resources necessary for our world-class team to compete for the national title,” said Honors College Interim Dean Glenn Chambers.
“His commitment to our Spartans and their success is an inspiration to us all as we work in partnership to cultivate a new generation of leaders,” Chambers said.
Akumiah has confidence in the debate team’s trajectory, guided by its director, Carly Watson, and head coach, Will Repko.
“Having a gift that has been an infusion of capital on the team has made a huge difference for our ability to make short-term improvements that are obvious from a competitive standpoint,” Watson said. “It’s immediately translated into us being in a completely different stratosphere of competitive success.”
Watson said those short-term improvements include harnessing technology and improving recruitment efforts. Akumiah’s gift has made it possible to fund student recruiting trips to MSU, where potential Spartan debaters can feel what it’s like to be on the team and on campus.
Going into this season, the team has been recognized as one of the top seven in the country, based on exclusive tournament invitations.
MSU debater Joanna Gusis said she’s learned a lot from her conversations with Howard “about the competitive spirit and what it means to be a Spartan.”
MSU Debate boasts one of the best public university programs in the country. For 27 consecutive years, the team has competed at the National Debate Tournament, becoming national champions in 2004, 2006 and 2010. MSU Debate has advanced over 40 teams to the elimination rounds of the tournament and received 24 first-round, at-large bids.
Gusis has been working with Akumiah to code a program that helps the team prepare for debates more efficiently.
“Debate provides a lot of things to a lot of students – research skills, connections, alumni relations,” Gusis said. “But in the end we’re here to do one thing, and it’s to put MSU on the radar and get another national championship in the bank.”
Gusis is a third-year Honors College student pursuing dual degrees in Political Theory & Constitutional Democracy in James Madison College and Statistics in the College of Natural Science with a minor in Computer Science.
Learn more about support for MSU Debate by contacting Honors College Director of Development Tonya Frisbey at frisbey2@msu.edu or (517) 884-7591.