Debate: Motivating Students Today to Become Successful Leaders of Tomorrow

Written by: Daria Stoyanova, Content & Translation Coordinator at BEST Foundation

Debating has a long history, as we can trace its origins all the way back to ancient Greece and India. But debate, the way we know it today, only really started in the 18th century. Put very simply, the participants in a debate should defend their point of view for or against a certain topic ( e.g. Tik Tok’s growing fame, LGBT marriage) with the help of logical argumentation.

Of course, we can say that each and every one of us has debated in the course of our daily life. But let’s not forget that this is also currently an officially recognized competitive sport with its specific rules and requirements. Actually, Bulgaria has quite a successful history in this discipline - young adults from our country have taken part in international competitions with students from some of the most prestigious universities in the world and scored amongst the best. 

But why debate? This seems to be a discipline that is seemingly not all that popular in Bulgaria. Actually, even my own first impressions of it were born out of watching cliched American dramas, featuring the ever-elusive debate club. But that is changing - BEST Foundation’s English speech and debate competitions regularly bring together more than 200 students from different parts of the country. These young adults are excited to compete against each other and show off their skills debating or reciting poetry and prose in English. 

Taking into consideration the numerous useful skills debate harnesses, this is no big surprise. The preparation to take part in a debate involves background research on a given topic, as well as the confident application of the gained knowledge in front of an audience in a calm and confident manner. This not only develops skills such as public speaking, which is a key career development skill, but also improves the way one expresses themselves in writing as well. But of course, just reciting back facts is not enough. The debaters should also be able to apply critical thinking skills and logic in order to effectively utilize the given information for their argument. 

According to the American debate league debate is a proven way to combat low school graduation rates. Their data points to the fact that 90% of high school students that took part in debate graduated successfully as opposed to just 50% amongst their peers who did not take part in this activity. Moreover, those who debated exhibited higher SAT scores and managed to get into more prestigious universities. Stanford also has a similar opinion - according to their research debate develops critical thinking, improves written and verbal communication, and leads to better information processing skills. Let’s also not forget that those who debate have to invest time and effort into informing themselves about a variety of different topics, which makes them more tolerant and prone to view the same situation from different points of view. 

Competitive debate in our country has developed mainly thanks to two organizations - BEST Foundation and the Bulgaria Debate Association.. They have put their heart and soul into supporting a generation of intelligent, civically engaged young leaders. The two organizations have already started the process of recruitment for our national debate team. The said process begins in February each year and students that would like to participate should send in applications, the best of which will be then invited to an interview. From then on, the roughly 30 potential candidates are given a series of written tasks, as well as practice debates. In the end, 8 of the most promising candidates will come together to form a team, which this year will take part in various competitions such as the World School Debating Championship and ARGO Debate in Romania. BDA and BEST hope for even better results this time around. Last year our team performed very impressively and managed to reach the octofinals of the WSD Championship competition. Moreover this year BEST is preparing some of our students, so they can attend a prestigious international competition in Slovenia in March. 

But, of course, our national team is not the only thing BEST concerns itself with. The Foundation does its best to support all of its students and to give them a chance to improve their skills. We organize events such as workshops and have a dedicated panel of volunteer judges that we train to evaluate their performances. Last year with the help of our sponsors from the Bulgarian-American Fulbright Commission managed by Angela Rodel we managed to organize a one-week summer camp for the first time. Its aim was to improve the students’ critical thinking skills, as well as their ability to properly argue through the help of lectures, as well as practical exercises. The camp was a hit amongst them and we hope to hold it again this year. If you want to be a part of this initiative and to know that you are helping to harness the future leaders of Bulgaria, we would be more than happy to receive any form of financial support. 

If by the end of reading this you are still not quite sure of the persuasive power of debate, we’d like to proudly invite you to see our debate showcase live stream, which will be held on the 5th of March. You’ll be able to witness two of our most successful teams compete in front of a panel of judges, as well as employees from some of the most renowned law firms in Bulgaria.