Nov 06, 2024 At 02:40 PM EDT
The Portland Urban Debate League (PUDL) is kicking off its 2024-2025 season with a new leader at the helm. The Urban Debate league announced in June that Christine Lewis will step in as the new executive director, taking over the role from outgoing Executive Director Mal Copeland, who held the position for four years.
Lewis was not a competitive debater—but told Newsweek that she took debate as a class in her high school in Dallas.
"It was a really formative class," she said. "It's one of those memories that is crystal clear. I remember not only the specifics of it, but how it felt to get to debate in front of my classmates."
The PUDL is a relatively new league in the National Association for Urban Debate Leagues (NAUDL) family. It was launched in 2019 because PUDL Board President Jake Weigler said debate was "struggling" in Oregon.
"[Debate] used to be a really robust activity, something that students, regardless of background, could compete in and succeed," Weigler said. "I think that was a real loss, that [debate] had largely become a province of affluent public schools and private schools. So we designed the program starting from the proposition of how do we make this an inclusive and accessible activity?"
Lewis said PUDL serves students with "high need," including at schools with 35 percent or more participation in free and reduced lunch programs, and with diverse populations based not only on income and race but also languages spoken at home.
Eliminating costs of participation for students has been the cornerstone of the league—offering programming free of charge and providing additional support like free meals or clothing for tournaments.
The league began just before the COVID-19 pandemic forced schools into distance and remote learning and impacted after-school programming.
PUDL board member Amanda Haines said the league's debater spirit helped keep operations up and running during this challenging time.
"In the nonprofit world, there's this energy about wanting to get to a certain point, but people aren't particularly proactive or humble about how they approach getting there," she said. "That's never been an issue with PUDL. We put in so much, and we really use all of our skills to make sure we stay afloat at all times."
Early on, Haines said the board had an "all hands on deck" mentality. But today, she said the league has more resources due to the efforts of its leadership to build a consistent donor and sponsorship base.
She said policy debaters can shift into a "problem-solving mode" that makes them great organizers and community advocates. Her hope is that PUDL becomes more than a policy debate organization, but a "civic engagement incubator."
"Our students, with or without us pushing them, end up occupying these positions of community power because the kids seem thirsty for this kind of community," she said. "We are creating a network of civic educators and policymakers, and also just good people, good community members and stewards of the spaces out there."
And with Lewis' background as a political organizer, she feels like the perfect fit to help PUDL reach its goal.
Lewis has worked in politics and government for more than 15 years, including working as a campaign manager for mayoral and state Senate races in Oregon, as the deputy legislative director for Oregon Governor Tina Kotek and in other roles for the city of Portland and the Oregon Bureau of Labor and Industries.
Before her career in politics, Lewis also worked directly with students. She was a mentor to middle school students during college, an experience she said changed the way she thought about education.
"[This experience] really gave me not only skills on how to operate in a school environment, but a peek behind the curtain into what resources schools are lacking, what is most helpful and what kind of services really encourage student learning and emotional and social growth that needs to happen, particularly in middle and early high school age," she said.
After graduating from Reed College in 2007, Lewis volunteered with a program called Minds Matter, where she helped sophomores, juniors and seniors in high school with their college applications. During that time, Lewis witnessed the literacy struggles many students face.
"We had paper editions of The New York Times delivered to the room, but seeing these students grappling with how to read a newspaper, even though they were some of the smartest and best positioned to go to college, the lack of exposure to good journalism and how to process what's going on in the world really attracted me when I saw this position [at PUDL] posted," she said.
Lewis believes PUDL can be the front end of the pipeline for civic education and youth activism. In her years working in government, Lewis saw how debate skills directly translated to advocacy, noting effective youth movements surrounding climate action and gun control.
Students, she said, might not be able to name the exact lever that needs to be pulled within government, but they can point to the societal change that is needed to make a difference.
"I was really attracted to the idea of helping support students gaining these skills that are so essential in today's world where we have spurious arguments that seep out in the public sphere without everybody being able to kind of rise to that level of discourse," Lewis said. "But debaters get it, and debaters are making real change."
In a time of often toxic political discourse on a 24-hour news cycle, the PUDL believes debate can be an academic intervention to help students navigate pressing political and social issues. Debate teaches students how to have respectful and effective arguments and reminds them they are debating the topic, not the other person.
"We want everyone to feel welcome and to develop these skills in a place [where] you can have these disagreements about things but know that nobody's going to hold a grudge against you when you walk out the door," said PUDL board member Hayley Hollis. "I think having that for students is vital, and the growth they can have is just amazing."
Making an impact within the league would not be possible without PUDL's board of directors. Hollis, a former high school debater and coach, has volunteered at several tournaments as a debate judge where she said she enjoys giving young debaters feedback.
"I think part of the reason our board is so involved is so many of us have either been debaters ourselves or coaches," she said. "It's hard to walk away and not help in the tournament or judge. It gets in your blood."
Board President Weigler said PUDL has a "working board" of people from diverse backgrounds and experiences. But they all share a common love for debate and the goal of creating an equitable and inclusive environment.
"Everyone rolls their sleeves up and dives in, whether it is coaching, judging or providing logical support," he said. "I think that's reflected in the kind of membership of the board. This isn't a bunch of old white guys writing checks."
Weigler adds that he wants PUDL to be a place where students "get their feet wet" in debate. He said there is less focus on individual competitive success and more on working together to improve.
"One of the things that gives me great heart is watching a debate round and then watching two teams give each other advice," he said. "It really does feel like a collaborative environment that is about everyone getting better versus trying to sort out who's good and who's bad. That's a really positive environment to provide for students."
This year, the board is prioritizing stabilizing schools the league serves while also expanding into new districts in the Portland area. This also includes solidifying a middle school debate program, which is currently offered after school through a partnership with the nonprofit SUN [Schools Uniting Neighborhoods] Community Schools.
"I really appreciate that we're getting to work with the nonprofits because that helps us really live the values of serving not only schools who need the support, but the students [for whom] debate can be absolutely life-changing," Lewis said.
These types of partnerships allow the league to have additional support and ensure PUDL students are connected to their schools and their communities in a way that brings a holistic education.
"Having worked in nonprofits and startup political organizations of all levels, I am really hyper-focused on finding not only the right scale for our program but how that can be balanced with making sure we're a sustainable organization," she said.
Community building is one of Lewis' strongest assets that will help scale PUDL as it aims to grow and serve more students.
"I'm super excited to see the continued growth of the Portland Urban Debate League, and I think we got a strong leader at the helm and lots of willing folks on the board and support to help it grow," board member Hollis said. "I think we've got all the elements in place [to be successful]."
