BEST FOUNDATION HOSTS ITS NATIONAL AND FINAL TOURNAMENT OF THE 2021-2022 SEASON IN A HYBRID FORMAT
On April 16th and 17th, 2022 The BEST Foundation will hold its national and final tournament of this season both online, and in the AUBG campus in Blagoevgrad. The best students from the past regional competitions will gather to compete in five events: World Schools Style debate, poetry and prose interpretation, duo interpretation, and original oratory.
Amidst a global pandemic, the NGO held all its large public events online, using video-conferencing software for all of the participants’ safety but as the situation is improving, the 2021-2022 National tournament will be hybrid. We are more than happy to finally see our students and judges in person, and not only through a computer screen.
During this past academic year, BEST has put a lot of effort to better prepare the student competitors for the tournaments. Starting with the extensive teacher training in September with workshops on piece selection, poetry and debate. We’ve also held several seminars for students such as writing an original speech and argument strategies, which proved to improve the performances of the students according to our judge feedback. We also had our debate showcase on the 5th of March, where a number of employees of renowned Bulgaria law firms came together to judge some of our best students.
For this tournament we are especially grateful to be sponsored by the U.S Embassy in Sofia, as well as to the American University in Bulgaria who are our in-person hosts.
BEST is proud to have maintained a strong group of judges who are an essential part of the success of our tournaments and whom without their help our students won’t have a way of improving their critical thinking skills and speech delivery. Among our judges for past tournaments were Ms. Angela Rodel, Executive Director at the Fulbright Commission; Dimiter Kenarov, Bulgarian Journalist, and many other professionals and university students.
Miko Dimov, a BEST tournament Judge from Blagoevgrad said: “It has been 10 years since I judged or debated and it was such a pleasure to participate and feel the debating buzz again- congrats to all competitors and keep at it”.
BEST already held 4 other regional competitions, as well the international tournament Balkan voices, which gathered students from all over the Balkan Peninsula.
About The BEST Foundation
BEST stands for Bulgarian English Speech and Debate Tournaments. Established in 2013, BEST provides the English-language learners of Bulgaria an opportunity to come together and pursue personal growth through English language speech and debate. BEST aims to empower students to think critically, express themselves creatively, and create a dynamic community that truly cares about the success and the future of Bulgaria. BEST is proud to provide a platform for English-language speech and debate for students across the country.
MEDIA CONTACTS: Petar Donchev: assistant.director@bestfoundation.bg