University of Georgia qualifies three teams for National Debate Tournament

The University of Georgia Debate Team has qualified three teams to the National Debate Tournament for the first time since 2003. The NDT will be held at the University of Texas at Austin later this month.

The NDT is a qualifying event for the 78 best two-person debate teams in the country. As part of the selection process, only six schools are allowed to bring three teams to the event, based on an evaluation of competitive records over the course of the season.

This year the schools that have qualified three teams are: University of California-Berkeley, Emory, Harvard, Northwestern, Wake Forest and the University of Georgia.

The three UGA teams are comprised of debaters Brittany Cambre and Adam Schmidt, Karen Harrison and Maggy Warden, and Mike Lacy and Tommy Beyer.

The team’s new coach, Casey Harrigan, is in his first year at UGA preparing the teams for both regional and national competitions. This also marks the 20th consecutive year that UGA has qualified at least one team for the National Debate Tournament. Harrigan is a faculty member in the department of speech communication in UGA’s Franklin College of Arts and Sciences.

The trip to Austin will be funded through the support of the President’s Venture Fund.

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Now Debate This Announces 'The 100-Day Presidential Challenge'

/PRNewswire/ -- Now Debate This, America's only national online educational debate and $250,000 high school scholarship contest, announced a new, exciting competition to the 2009 program year to coincide with President-Elect Obama's first 100 days in the White House: "The 100-Day Presidential Challenge." This competition will ask high school students from across America to research their communities' biggest energy problems, and develop Energy Solution Proposals they can implement at the local level. The winners will earn a $5,000 clean technology prize for their school or organization, and an opportunity to share ideas with national experts, such as members of President Obama's cabinet, Congress, and the energy industry.

"In selecting the 2009 Now Debate This topic, 'U.S. Energy Independence,' we see a new opportunity to galvanize the power of America's youth to solve the country's most pressing problems," said Mary L. Hagy, Founder and Executive Producer of Now Debate This, based in Philadelphia. "We challenge all high school students to first, understand the history and context of their community's energy issues, and second, to propose viable solutions to their local problems."

Now Debate This (www.nowdebatethis.com), in partnership with the National Forensic League Speech and Debate Honor Society (NFL), presents "The 100-Day Presidential Challenge" as part of its 2009 program theme, "How can the U.S. achieve energy independence?"

"The timing of the 100-Day Presidential Challenge could not be better," said J. Scott Wunn, Executive Director of the NFL, based in Ripon, WI. Established in 1925, NFL is the nation's oldest and largest high school speech and debate organization. "The 2009 national tournament topic is alternative energy, so students, teachers and coaches are already studying and debating the issue all over the country. The 100-Day Challenge focuses that existing effort on creating viable solutions."

Students will identify and research their communities' most pressing energy problems through the creation of a timeline with background information and develop actionable plans to resolve the problems, including an economic and feasibility assessment. The contest will begin at 12:00:01 Eastern Standard Time on January 20, 2009 and close at 12:00:01 Eastern Standard Time, April 30, 2009.

Entries will be judged on creativity, historical research and analysis, the written proposal and accompanying video, documentation and feasibility. Judging panels will be convened by Now Debate This, comprised of representatives from education, non-profit, business, industry, technology and/or government sectors. Winners will be announced in May 2009.

In order to be eligible for "The 100-Day Presidential Challenge," high school student groups must:

-- Create a project web page on the Now Debate This Confab site. The
students will use this page to communicate their work through blog
entries, photos, videos, news articles and other appropriate
presentations. Judging will include evaluation of the content
generated on the group's page.
-- Research the history of energy usage in their communities, and develop
a timeline that includes the key actors and actions in their
community's energy use, as well as an explanation of the scope of the
problem today. Students must upload the timeline on their Now Debate
This Confab web page.
-- Create a SMART Energy Solution Proposal detailing the project and how
it will be accomplished. SMART is an acronym for Specific, Measurable,
Attainable, Results-oriented, and Time frame. Student groups will use
these five categories to analyze the feasibility and economic efficacy
of the Energy Solution Proposal. The written proposal should be
accompanied by a video presentation of no more than 90 seconds, which
describes the problem and demonstrates why the students' idea poses
the best solution. Video presentations will be uploaded to YouTube.com
and SchoolTube.com.


Now Debate This launched its 2009 program on November 14, 2008 at the National Social Studies Conference in Houston. The 2009 program will consist of three competitions: "The 100-Day Presidential Challenge," "President Prep Time Essay Contest," which prompts students to write the new President about the issues they consider most important, and the "Now Debate This Scholarship Program" for high school juniors to compete for $250,000 in college scholarship money. The scholarship program will issue a call for video entry submissions to be posted to YouTube.com and SchoolTube.com in late February, 2009. The 16 semi-finalists are scheduled to be announced in May, with a summer travel study program beginning in late June, ending with the debate tournament in August.

Now Debate This is made possible through the generous support of the National Endowment for the Humanities, the National Forensic League, National History Day, the National Park Service and institutional and private partners including the United Nations Foundation.

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Munson Puts Fayette County 's Starr’s Mill High on the Radar at Blue Key Speech and Debate Tournament

Imagine walking into your office and being told that you have just 30 minutes to research and prepare a persuasive seven-minute speech on a particular topic. Well, if you were Molly Munson, you would not even break a sweat.

Molly, a student at Starr’s Mill High in Fayetteville, Georgia, was awarded second place in Extemporaneous Speaking at the 25th annual Blue Key Speech and Debate Tournament held last month at the University of Florida. She competed against 51 high school students from Georgia, Pennsylvania and Florida to win the coveted honor.

Before the tournament even started, Molly proved she could hold her own against some very competitive debaters. She was one of six students selected to participate in the annual Blue Key Round Robin that foreshadows the general tournament. Only the nation’s most skilled and accomplished student speakers are invited to participate.

After competing in five grueling rounds with a cross examination after each speech, Molly emerged victorious taking third place in the Mixed Extemporaneous Speaking division.

“She had the eventual winner, the current national champion, shaking in his boots. She has done the best of any Starr’s Mill student in the history of the school,” says Molly’s proud mother Sue Munson.

Nine students from Starr’s Mill, including Molly, participated in the tournament. Eric Bogert, Hannah Mattia, Martin Halicek and Jacob Nails competed in the Lincoln Douglas Debate and Aaron Ash, Noah Brunner, Lauren Mattia and Syneva Runyan were competitors in the Public Forum Debate.

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UWG Debate Team Continues Success Streak

The University of West Georgia Debate Team earned a 17-1 record after competing in two tournaments at the Las Vegas Round Robin Invitational at the University of Nevada-Las Vegas.

In the first tournament, the UWG Debate Team and Florida residents Vince Binder of Gainesville and Jim Schultz of Jupiter earned a perfect record of 10-0 while competing against several nationally ranked universities including Emory University, Kansas State University, University of Texas and University of Wyoming. In the second tournament, the Schultz and Binder Debate team earned a 10-1 record.

In a round robin format, each team debates every other team participating in the competition. Schultz and Binder debated and won over every team. The team was also recognized for their speaking skills with Schultz established as the top individual speaker in both events. Binder ranked in the top ten as a sixth place speaker.

The UWG Debate Team has seen great success in previous years. Under the direction of Dr. Michael Hester, assistant dean of the Honors College and Debate coach, the team has participated in numerous debate competitions and has qualified for a National Debate Tournament 36 consecutive years.

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