Denver UDL Takes Shape on the Horizon

With the Fall 2008 target date for launching a Denver UDL only a year away, the Denver UDL Advisory Board and the NAUDL have fostered promising relationships with local foundations and are building momentum for a successful and sustainable League.

As recently as last year, urban debate was not on the radar in the Denver area.  However, two Denver community leaders, Roberto Corrada, Professor of Law at the University of Denver, and Rico Munn, Executive Director at the Colorado Department of Regulatory Agencies, approached the NAUDL for assistance in building an Urban Debate League.  Believing that debate had played an important part in their own academic development and personal achievement, they have spearheaded the project and now serve as the co-chairs of the Denver Urban Debate League Advisory Board.  Several notable leaders from the Colorado legal and philanthropic community have joined the Board.  They include: Casie Collignon of Baker & Hostetler, LLP; John Culver of Benezra & Culver, LLC; the Hon. R. Brooke Jackson; Don Jacobsen, owner of Fair Solutions LLC; Margaret Lin of the National Association of Charter School Authorizers; Angela Padilla, law student at Denver University; and John Phillips of Bartlit, Beck, Herman, Palenchar & Scott LLP.

The NAUDL and Denver UDL Advisory Board have engaged local education reform funders, and several initial meetings with local foundations have demonstrated a considerable amount of enthusiasm for urban debate in the Denver community.

Together, the NAUDL and the Denver UDL Advisory Board will build on this enthusiasm on September 23rd at the home of co-chair, Roberto Corrada.  This Reception will give education administrators, business leaders, foundations, philanthropists and other community leaders the opportunity to witness the powerful effects that participation in competitive academic debate can have upon individuals, schools, and communities.

Of course, the successful launch of the Denver UDL in the fall of 2008 remains the focus of this kind of relationship building.  And, the Denver UDL’s remarkable progress shows that a little good planning is worth its weight in gold.