DEBATE TEACHERS CONFERENCE 
IS COMING! SEPTEMBER 1ST!
"Maybe you could be a mayor or a Senator or a Supreme Court Justice, but you might not know that until you join student government or the debate team." 
- President Obama, State of Schools Address
8/21/16

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In This Issue
NYC Debate
Newsletters
Debate League Websites
Debate Con
Attention Debate Coaches!


This week we shout out to DEBATE CON! New York City's first year round series of all day debate workshops - for debate educators and by debate educators. On September 1st over fifty debate educators will participate in all day debate workshops for beginner coaches to advanced coaches. So if you love debate or if you are interested in starting a debate program, or just interested in sharing your passion for debate then please sign up! Also, for our advanced debate coaches out there - we need your help. Please let us know if interested in teaching a session at Summer Debate Con.  Workshops, breakfast, lunch, networking and more provided for all! The conference will be held at our office at 25 Broadway. This conference is for adult debate teachers and coaches only. Participating schools should be members of the NYCUDL. Click here to register your school for the upcoming debate season. And if you haven't registered yet for the Conference you can click here to sign up. Finally, if you would like to volunteer to teach one or more workshops please email us at [email protected]. And if you cannot make this debate conference, then we have three more coming up on each of the Chancellor Professional Development Days. Thanks again everyone and see you at Summer Debate Con! 

Agenda
9:00am-9:30am - Breakfast
9:30am-10:00am - Keynote Speaker
10:00am-11:00am - Workshop #1
11:00am-12:00pm - Workshop #2
12:00pm-1:00pm - Lunch
1:00pm-2:00pm - Workshop #3
2:00pm-3:00pm - Workshop #4
3:00pm - Departure and/or Happy Hour

Sincerely,
Erik Fogel, Executive Director and the NYCUDL Team
(917) 455-1079

Upcoming Debate Events

9/10 - NYCUDL Community Meetings (Students (11:00am), Parents, Alumni, Volunteers (12:00pm)) (Our office, 25 Broadway, 9th Floor) 
9/16-18 - Yale University High School Invitational 
9/24 - Manhattan Middle School Tournament
10/8 -  High School Tournament #1 
10/15 - Harlem/Bronx Middle School Tournament
10/22 - Brooklyn/Queens Middle School Tournament

Donate to support our city's debaters! 

Schools! Join the New York City Urban Debate League!

donate 
DEBATE CON SUMMER!
New York City Debate Educators Conference
Thursday, September 1st, 9am-3pm

Debate Con
Debate Con is NYC Debate Educators Conference for Debate Educators and by Debate Educators. This is held four times a year (Summer, Fall, Spring, Winter). Our summer debate conference will be held after summer school ends, on Thursday, September 1st. This event is free for all debate educators.

Debate Con Registration

Debate Con Sample Schedule
TRAVEL DEBATE TEAM SCHOLARSHIP APPLICATION: YALE UNIVERSITY
9/16-9/18 Yale University Tournament
Scholarship Applications Due August 25th.

yale
Attention Varsity Debaters! Interested in Travel! Interested in competing against some of the top teams in the Northeast and country! But you don't have the funds to travel on your own. This year we started the Travel Team Scholarship Application so top ranked individual debaters would still have the opportunity to travel. Our first travel debate tournament for the year is Yale University. 

Thank you to Travel Director, Whitney Brown and Brown Rudnick for making the Travel Team possible! 

5 Reasons Why Schools Should Teach Debate to Students
Intellectual Takeout, August 16th, 2016

debate
According to Dr. Shelly Johnson, author of Everyday Debate, "developing a debater's mind will help [individuals] think more critically about the world around," while also "enabling [individuals] to cut through all of the facts and words to find the truth or error in people's arguments." Given the state of public discourse today, do we need to do a better job teaching our children to debate in a logical and civil manner? Click the link below for 5 reasons why every school should teach debate! 

Listen to Former High School Debater and now Presidential Frontrunner, Hillary Clinton's College Graduation Speech on Student Activism. 
Washington Post, August 14th, 2016

hillary
Check out former High School Debater, Hillary Clinton's graduating speech in college. "Clinton's remarks transformed her, virtually overnight, into a national symbol of student activism. Wire services blasted out her remarks, and Life magazine featured a photo of her, dressed in bold striped bell-bottoms. Clinton soon caught the attention of leading figures of the left, including civil rights activist Vernon Jordan and her future mentor, Children's Defense Fund founder Marian Wright Edelman..."

Former High School Debater and now world renowned Public Speaker, Tony Robbins on Public Speaking
Forbes Magazine, August 9th, 2016

tony robbins
"The number one reason people are ineffective speakers is because they're focused on themselves. If you're focused on yourself, then you can't possibly connect with the audience," Tony Robbins

"I realized it [public-speaking] was a skill and a gift," Robbins told me. "And that the skill and the gift combined could do some beautiful things. I've now been practicing it for 39 years." - Tony Robbins

Remembering Ralph Bunche, 
High School and College Debater, 
August 7th 1903 or 1904 - December 9th, 1971
Daily Kos, August 7th

ralph bunche
Great article last week published on high school, college debater, President of the Debate Team and Queens, New York resident Ralph Bunche. Bunche besides being an award winning debater was the first African American recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize, first African American to gain a PhD in political science from an American university, worked for the Office of Strategic Services during World War II (predecessor to the CIA), Undersecretary-General of the United Nations, academic, and diplomat who was critical to the founding of the United Nations, Universal Declaration of Human Rights, and peacemaking work in the Middle East, Congo, Yemen, Kashmir, and Cyprus. His peace treaty work in the Middle East would later become the model of truce agreement between the Bloods and the Crips in Los Angeles. Born the grandson of a slave and orphaned at the age of 12, Bunche rose to become undersecretary-general of the United Nations. Bunch participated in the March on Washington and was Professor at Howard University and impacting generations of students. He was on the debate team of his high school and also Valedictorian of high school but denied membership in the city's honor society because of his race. Accepted to UCLA on a football scholarship, he also joined the Debate Team and later became President of the Debate Team. Bunche worked his way through college as a janitor and graduated from UCLA as valedictorian.

Click here to learn more.
No One Thought This All-Woman's Debate Team Could Crush It. 
NPR Digital Media, July 29th, 2016

girls debate
"One by one, before their weekly debating practice, each debater would walk to the front of the room, strike a "power pose," and say something to remind everyone in the room that she is powerful. That she is a winner. Week after week they repeated these phrases - "I'm a debater and I'm the winner today" - willing themselves to believe that it was true. In a way, the girls were doing what their country had done: taking on a new pose, looking in the mirror and declaring themselves to be new, better and hopefully more successful.

Register Your School for the 2016-2017 Debate Season! 

Logo"Maybe you could be a mayor or a Senator or a Supreme Court Justice, but you might not know that until you join student government or the debate team." - President Obama, State of Schools Address


Debate is the most rigorous academic program since Ancient Greece and so the New York City Urban Debate League is committed to the mission that all schools should have a debate team and all students should have access to the best debate education opportunities.


Click here for school registration. We provide training and anything you need to start and sustain a successful debate program.
How to get involved! 

"Anyone who bemoans the state of public education need only spend a weekend at a high school speech and debate tournament to have their faith restored." - Curt Stedron (School Teacher)

Debate since Ancient Greece is the most rigorous academic program. Our mission is every school should have a debate team and every student should have access to the best debate education opportunities. We need your support to make this possible! 

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Judging Opportunities!

Debate Coaching and Mentorship Opportunities!

Start a Debate Team!
(must be affiliated with your school as teacher and/or administrator)

Donate to Support Debate!
Click here to donate now!
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Thank you for taking the time to read our Newsletter for this week!

About the New York City Urban Debate League
The New York City Urban Debate League is the largest urban debate league in the nation and only urban debate league that is year round. We impact several thousand students and over 100 schools each month by supporting debate practices every day, debate tournaments every weekend, community debate centers every week, teacher professional development conferences every month, out of state travel opportunities every month, and debate institutes all summer. We are the winner of the White House Youth Awards, which recognizes the nation's top after school programs....

"The New York City Urban Debate League is a program that empowers underserved students while immersing them in public speaking, research techniques, civics, law and ethnic studies.  Along with countless debating trophies, the program boasts years of data showing that their alums have higher grade point averages, high school graduation rates, college acceptances and number of scholarships than their peers." - Chairman of the National Endowment for the Humanities, the First Lady of the United States, and the Chairman of the National Endowment for the Arts, honoring us with the National Arts and Humanities Award for one of the top after school programs in the nation in the arts and humanities

Sincerely,
 
The New York City Urban Debate League Team