Jul 05, 2024 At 10:45 AM EDT
Last week, over 6,000 high school students gathered in Des Moines, Iowa, for the National Speech and Debate Tournament hosted by the National Speech and Debate Association (NSDA).
After a week of fierce competition, it wasn't only students who walked away with major awards. Chicago Debates, a league in the National Association for Urban Debate Leagues (NAUDL), was honored with an award for advancing equity in debate.
"We didn't expect to win by any stretch," Chicago Debates Executive Director Anthony Bolden told Newsweek. "We recognize that our work is just part of a much larger picture, but to have the opportunity to have some of our efforts highlighted is really cool."
The Activating Equity Award is given by the NSDA to a group or organization that is dedicated to enhancing the "culture of equity" in the middle and high school speech and debate community, according to the NSDA website. Recipients also receive $5,000 to help fund their mission.
Paul Porter, the director of diversity, equity and inclusion at NSDA, told Newsweek that the NSDA hopes the money "opens a pathway to participation in speech and debate," a "powerful skill" that more people should have the opportunity to learn.
"It's our hope that the recipient of the Activated Equity Award is leaning tightly into appreciation and promotion of the activity of speech and debate as a pathway to honing skills that are going to not only create better communicators, but also create opportunities for our young people to go into the world and continue to transform it in positive ways," he said.
For Chicago Debates, which serves nearly 1,500 students from over 100 schools, Bolden said the league plans to use this money to fund its Student Leadership Development Institute. This new program will occur during the first week of Chicago Debates' summer camp in late July.
This weeklong training will help students attending Title 1 schools who have to lead their debate team on their own because they do not have a coach but "want to keep the team alive," Bolden said.
"The challenge is, especially with Title 1 schools, if you lose a coach, you almost always lose the team," he said. "If a coach leaves, the team dies and we're forced to rebuild it again. They need support."
With the help of the Activating Equity Award, the Student Leadership Development Institute will be free for students to attend. The money will cover supplies, food, guest speakers and payment to staff.
The award, which is sponsored by Colorado College, was created in 2022 by NSDA Executive Director J. Scott Wunn and outgoing Vice President of the Board of Directors Tommie Lindsey Jr. And the first recipient was awarded in 2023.
For Bolden and Chicago Debates, the road to this award began back in January, when the nomination for the grant opened.
The league put together a proposal and was among the other 35 nominees under consideration by a committee of NSDA staff members.
"What stood out most about Chicago Debates was their reach," NSDA DEI Director Porter said. "They way [Bolden] and his team really lean into the economically disadvantaged while also looking at diversity broadly in the schools that they reach out to and the students they support was very telling."
The winner of the award was announced at the NSDA national tournament, which ran from June 16 to June 21.
Being on the stage to accept the award in front of 5,000 students, their coaches and other support staff reminded Bolden of how big the debate world is.
"I think when you're running things on a local [or] regional level, you don't recognize how large the ecosystem is and really what you're a part of," he said. "When I was at the national championship, it was a big deal."
The recognition at the NSDA tournament inspired Bolden to help more Chicago Debates students compete at the national level and possibly expand to different forms of speech and debate events.
Looking ahead, Chicago Debates will continue to push for equity in the debate community. The league recently launched its equity expansion plan that includes creating more debate teams in high crime, high poverty areas in Chicago and the launch of a Spanish language debate program to expand access to debate across the language barrier.
This award, Bolden said, will help continue Chicago Debates' efforts to give "targeted, unapologetic" focus on students who need the most attention, including those coming from schools that are under-resourced in the city.
Bolden said there is no greater opportunity one can give a student than to give them a space to use their voice.
"[Debate] strengthens your academics, but it also gives you community that allows you to see outside of your neighborhood," he said, "because you're debating all across the city—for some of our students, across the state and country—while also building an awareness of what's going on around you and creating the skills to do something about it."
