Boston Debate League Moving Forward
The NAUDL has been working closely with John Isaacson, Chair of the Boston Debate League Advisory Board, and Andrew Brokos, League Director of the Boston Debate League (www.bostondebate.org) to strengthen Beantown's UDL. Andrew reports on the high level of activity for the Boston UDL.
“The past few months have been some of the best for debate in Boston. The Boston Debate League has hosted several of its largest tournaments ever, and we've had some milestones on the regional circuit as well. On February 2nd, we took two teams to a suburban tournament at Manchester High School. This was the third suburban tournament the BDL has attended, but the first were our debaters won awards. Li Hui Xie and Faisa Sharif of Charlestown High School were the fifth place team, and Tyrell Carter, debating with Julio Lanzo, won fourth place speaker for the Academy of Public Service. Then the next weekend, we had our first League-wide trip to out of state. Fifteen students and five coaches took a charter bus to Hope High School to compete with the Rhode Island Debate League, our sister UDL based in Providence. Everyone was excited by the prospect of traveling, meeting new debaters, and competing at a larger tournament.”
The BDL has also made much progress on the ground in developing support from and visibility with local educational and political leaders. Boston Public Schools superintendent Dr. Carol Johnson honored the League with a visit to a BDL tournament hosted by Charlestown High School. She stayed for about two hours, observed several debates, spoke with students, teachers, and administrators, and commented on the academic rigor of the program.
Kathleen Mullin, Special Assistant for High School Renewal for the Boston Public Schools, is considering support for the NAUDL template of public-private coordination of support: the city public school system finances the core debate programs in the schools, with additional funds matching the system's support coming from the local Advisory Board.
The Boston Debate League has recently been named as one of only several Boston-area non-profit organizations to be funded by the Harbus Foundation. Run by the Harvard University Business School, the Harbus Foundation does a rigorous analysis of potential grantees’ mission-effectiveness and the soundness of their business model.
The BDL has also been successful at earning local media coveage. In a Boston Herald article entitled “Great Debaters Hone Their Skills at Boston Schools” Alexander Chan, captain of the Josiah Quincy High School team noted: "Debate is about taking a risk. It is about finding a voice. Debate used to be very upper class. With urban debate you have all different backgrounds. It gives us a taste of what we can accomplish."
Students from the Boston Debate League were also featured in local news coverage of a public debate they hosted in January to honor Martin Luther King’s vision. Nearly 200 audience members participated in the debate. Andrew Brokos, Boston’s League Director reported that, “Yesterday's Find Your Voice public debate event was a great success. Ten of the BDL's best debaters honored MLK Day with discussions of race, human rights, and non-violence at the Boston Public Library in Copley Square. We were honored to have the Reverend Gregory Groover, Vice Chair of the Boston School Committee, which governs the Boston Public Schools, as the Master of Ceremonies. Reverend Groover, in turn, told the students that he was honored to be involved and that they were the "great thinkers and debaters" of our time.
The Boston UDL Advisory Board has met twice recently and has established working committees on networking and institutionalizing. Sonja Starr, Harvard Law Fellow, is chairing the Networking Committee, reaching out to local former debaters in the area. John Isaacson, Chair of the Boston Advisory Board, is leading the Institutionalization Committee, developing local supporters.
