Jackson Free Press

[Verbatim] After correctly answering 106 questions during a quiz bowl competition, two Millsaps grads have received two highly coveted tickets to the first presidential debate on Friday.
Maureen McDonald, of Madison, and Corey Williamson, of Water Valley, won the tickets last week after their team won the political quiz bowl, "Quiz Me," on the Ole Miss campus last week. Other teammates were Marielle Dirkx and Drew Wilkerson, both of Madison. The team studied campaign slogans, political and debate trivia and presidential quotes in preparation for the multi-round quiz bowl.

"This is a pivotal election for the United States," said McDonald, who served as the team's captain. "It's true that a U.S. president has limited authority, but the next president will have significant influence and a chance to make a difference in terms of policy and diplomatic relations."

Both political science majors at Millsaps and now in law school, McDonald and Williamson will hear presidential candidates Senator John McCain and Senator Barak Obama debate foreign policy and homeland security.

"I'd had the privilege of working with both Maureen and Corey when they were undergraduates and they are capable of impressive things," said Ashleigh Powers, assistant professor of political science at Millsaps College. "For them to get to experience this historically significant debate first hand is just wonderful."
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Millsaps College, founded in 1890, is an independent, national liberal arts institution affiliated with the United Methodist Church. Consistently ranked in the top tier of national liberal arts colleges, Millsaps is located in Jackson, Miss., a metropolitan capital city of 425,000. Millsaps College is also the only Mississippi institution featured in the Fiske Guide to Colleges, and is cited as one of Loren Pope's 40 Colleges That Change Lives.