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 immediately 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 Dramatic Interpretation, Duo Interpretation and Program Oral Interpretation – disciplines that require sophisticated performance skills and storytelling. 

By the end of her ninth-grade year, she qualified for the national championship in Program Oral Interpretation as the first alternate. As a sophomore, she finished third in Program Oral Interpretation at a national tournament at the University of Pennsylvania, then finished sixth at the prestigious end-of-season Tournament of Champions event in Lexington, Kentucky. “That’s when I realized, ‘Wow, I can definitely do this,’” she said.

As a junior, she finished fifth in the nation at the national championship event. 

She began the 2024-25 season with several victories in Duo Interpretation with Lucas Sanchez ’27 but, as January approached, she grew dissatisfied with the solo piece she had developed to perform: a Dramatic Interpretation program about grief. She did not feel inspired by the topic. When she revealed her feelings to Hamm during a lunch conversation – they agreed she should assemble a program that explored her identity as it had been shaped by Hispanic culture, a topic more impactful and inspiring for Colina. Colina, who was born in the United States but is of Venezuelan descent and spent most of her youth in Venezuela, decided to completely redo the program for Dramatic Interpretation – something almost unheard of at that point in the season. “It was one of the crazier things I had ever done in speech and debate,” she said.

A mere two weeks later, she debuted Legitimate Kid – and finished first at a tournament in North Carolina. 

That’s when she knew she was on the right track. At the Florida state championship in March, she also finished first. By the time she got to nationals – even after the disturbance – she was ready.

“Moments before I went on stage, I was thinking, ‘I just need to keep breathing. This is the culmination of the past four years of my life,’” she recalled. “Just do what I do best, and just tell a story. Really make people feel, take them somewhere.

“It was giving a voice to people that did not feel represented before that performance,” she continued. “I was so excited ... I can’t even explain it – it was just so electric on stage.”