Winners at The Urban Debate League

STORY BY TRAYON BARBER, FNN REPORTER, COLLEGIATE BUREAU. 

On Saturday, March 24th, the College debate team represented FCA at the most recent Urban Debate League in an outstanding fashion by placing second with a three and one score. The Urban Debate League is composed of public, private, and charter schools in the metropolitan region such as School Without Walls, McKinley Technology, Maret, and Cesar Chavez. The goal is to win as many rounds as possible based on the number of teams from each school. Teams are comprised of two or three students from a school who are debating on three topics. The three topics are usually, local, national, and international. The league helps students become better at public speaking and voicing opinions, they feel passionate about. There are several benefits of the Urban Debate League students have an opportunity to network with other students, improve their public speaking, and learn about current events. The work of the debate team matters because they only have twenty minutes to prepare for each round, they do not know the topic and cannot take their notes with them inside the room.

The debate team of FCA is made up of three members, senior Trayon Barber, senior William Fowlkes, and sophomore Tynia Miser. Mike Stevens is the coach of the debate team. The debate team practice at least once a week, but in a week leading up to the tournament they will meet twice.  In preparation, the debate team research, discusses, and hold mock debates to prepare for tournaments.

The debate team has faced many challenges this year such as forming a new team, balancing the work load and speaking in front of an audience. Last year’s debate team was made up of seniors and one junior. In addition, experienced teams were difficult to win against and studying unfamiliar topics to prepare for tournaments. The current debate team has continued to demonstrate progress with their second place finish in their last tournament. Teamwork has improved and all members are in sync to continue to win for FCA. The debate team encourages underclassmen to participate in debate next year and to always feel welcome to come out and support the FCA debate team.

Trayon Barber is a senior at Collegiate Academy.