THE DEBATE UNION

Congratulations to members of the Debate Union for fellowship and scholarship awards. This list is woefully incomplete. Please send your information to john.meany@cmc.edu.

Amanda Kandasamy CMC ’20, Fulbright Scholar (Indonesia)

Luke Radice CMC ’19, Fulbright Scholar (Germany)

Luke Radice CMC ’19, JET Program (Japan Exchange and Teaching)

Jessica Kim CMC ’20, JET Program (Japan Exchange and Teaching)

Blake Plante PO ’19, Watson Fellow

Paloma Palmer CMC ’19, Boren Scholar with the National Security Education Program – Senegal

Pastor Arroyo CMC ’18, Fulbright Scholar (Panama)

Anoush Baghdassarian CMC ’17, Napier Award for Creative Leadership (Refugee/genocide victim narrative collection in Armenia)

Anoush Baghdassarian CMC ’17, Humanity in Action (Legacy of post-Holocaust human rights – Berlin)

Joshua Rooney CMC ’17, Boren Scholar with the National Security Education Program – Kazakhstan

Syed ‘Umar’ Farooq CMC ’17, Critical Language Scholarship, US State Department Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs, Jordan

Syed ‘Umar’ Farooq CMC ’17, 2016 Truman Scholar

Mariah Barber PO ’15, Fulbright Scholar (Brazil)

Nadeem Farooqi CMC ’15, Coro Fellowship in Public Affairs

Nicole Pilar PZ ’14, Fulbright Scholar (Bulgaria)

Takako Mino CMC ’11, Napier Award for Creative Leadership (Public Debate Program integration in 5 East African countries)

Holly Poole SCR ’09 and CMC MA ’11, Fulbright Scholar (Macau)

Jake Heller PZ ’07, 2006 Truman Scholar

Jesse Last PO ’07, 2006 Truman Scholar

Andrew Lee CMC ’07, 2006 Truman Scholar

Madeline Zavodny CMC ’92, 1990 Truman Scholar

 

 

 

 

 

Congratulations – Asante Africa/Accelerated Learning in the Classroom Program

Congratulations to the Asante Africa Foundation, a non-profit educational organization working with teachers and students in rural Tanzania and Kenya. The organization uses the Debate Union’s Public Debate Program to accelerate critical-thinking and problem-solving skills in the classroom. More than 45,000 students and hundreds of teachers have participated in programming.

In Summer 2022, the CCDU and Asante Africa Foundation have partnered again to bring debate, public speaking, and critical thinking skills to more than 30,000 teachers and students in rural Uganda.

Congratulations to Charlie Sprague and Jesse Katz Blumenthal, the winners of the 2010 US Universities National Debating Championship. The tournament was sponsored by Regis University and the University of Denver, April 8-11. Charlie and Jesse were undefeated in their 10 debates. They placed ahead of Stanford, Yale, and Portland State in the final. The tournament included 124 teams representing undergraduate and graduate institutions from throughout the US.

Congratulations to other award winners at the tournament. Ellen Lebow and Adriane Holter were tournament octafinalists; Nick Rosa and Priya Srivats finished in fifth place among novice contestants (students in their first year of British Parliamentary intercollegiate competition). In addition to team honors, Jesse Katz Blumenthal was the 9th ranked individual speaker and Charlie Sprague was 11th speaker. This was the third time that Charlie has placed in the top ten at the national championship tournament. He was 2nd in 2008 (partner – Kari Wohlschlegel POM ’08) and 9th in 2009 (partner – Raymond Lu POM ’11). It is the second time that Jesse has placed in the top ten. He finished 10th in 2008 (partner – Joseph Clifton CMC ’11).

Other attending teams did extraordinarily well at the championship. No Claremont team was eliminated from competition prior to the result of the final preliminary debate. This is the fourth national championship for the CCDU but the first in the BP debate format, now the most popular college and university debating model in the US and in the world.