Mightier
Events

New York Debate League Values Life Skills Over Trophies

by Lauren Giella

Lauren Giella is a Senior Reporter based in New York. She reports on Newsweek's rankings content, focusing on workplace culture, health care and sustainability, profiling business leaders and reporting on industry trends. Lauren joined Newsweek in 2021 and previously covered live and breaking news, national news and politics and high school debate on the Mightier Hub. She is a graduate of the University of Southern California. You can get in touch with Lauren by emailing l.giella@newsweek.com.

Writers Page

Newsweek Is A Trust Project Member

news article

Based on facts, either observed and verified firsthand by the reporter, or reported and verified from knowledgeable sources.

Students sit in a lab at the New York City Urban Debate League Summer Institute at Hunter College in July. During the two-week camp, students learn about how to craft and organize arguments for both public forum and parliamentary debate. NYCUDL

Jul 29, 2023 At 10:56 AM EDT

On the final day of the New York City Urban Debate League (NYCUDL) summer debate institute, medals and trophies lined a table in a Hunter College classroom.

Cheers erupted as league staff announced the top teams and speakers of the end-of-camp debate tournament among 65 middle and high school students.

Students, with their bellies full of ice cream, clapped for their friends who they only met a few days earlier and go to different schools in different boroughs.

While it was a lively ceremony, the NYCUDL Summer Institute is not about winning awards. It's about what they learned to earn them.

"One big thing about our league is that we're outcome-focused, but we're life outcome-focused, not so much competitive outcome-focused," NYCUDL Executive Director Amisha Mody Mehta told Newsweek.

Friday was a big day for our Summer Debaters! Two weeks of hard work came together at our end of camp tournament, and the day was filled with treats for the students. After a special breakfast and...

The NYCUDL Summer Institute runs online and in person for novice to varsity debaters across the city. During the two weeks, students participate in instructional labs on public forum and parliamentary debate.

After a few years completely online, the camp returned in person in 2022. But this is the first year without masking and vaccine requirements.

The COVID pandemic didn't just impact NYCUDL's Summer Institute, it ushered in a new era for the league's leadership and programing.

Mody Mehta said that for a while, the league was stuck in the "startup phase" and she is "excited that we finally have made it." After a successful fundraiser earlier this summer, she feels the league has bounced back from the "chaotic" time during the pandemic.

Despite restructuring, the goals of the league have remained the same. While it's great to go to tournaments and win, Mody Mehta said that only happens to a handful of students. Her focus, therefore, is about teaching students how to be lifelong learners and critical thinkers who can advocate for themselves, confidently give presentations and decipher misinformation online.

NYCUDL3

A New York City Urban Debate League student presents her arguments during a tournament on the final day of the NYCUDL's Summer Institute at Hunter College on July 21. Students were broken into teams and... A New York City Urban Debate League student presents her arguments during a tournament on the final day of the NYCUDL's Summer Institute at Hunter College on July 21. Students were broken into teams and judged by volunteers from Latham & Watkins law firm. More NYCUDL

Mi Hoa Nguyen is a rising sophomore at University Neighborhood High School on the Lower East Side of Manhattan. She's only been debating for a few months but said participating in the activity helped her become "more extroverted."

"I felt kind of stressed out because of all the stuff I had to get done," she said. "I was struggling finding evidence and coming up with questions on the spot. But as time went on, just going to tournaments, I got better and better at it as I faced hard opponents and learned from them."

She's already learned so much in just a few days at camp, like how to prepare and organize arguments in rounds.

Nguyen's experience is something Sophia Lam knows well.

Lam just finished her first year at Harvard Law School and is currently a summer associate at Latham & Watkins, a law firm based in New York. But years ago, she was just like Nguyen.

Lam is an alumna of the NYCUDL who attended Poly Prep Country Day School, a private school in Brooklyn, on scholarship. Even though she was a self-described "shy and reserved" kid with dreams of becoming an engineer, she decided to try out debate.

She competed for three years and even coached a high school team for a few years while attending the University of Chicago.

Now she is back in New York helping young debaters. Latham & Watkins sent associates to volunteer as judges for the tournament on the last day of camp as part of a sort of "day of service," Lam said.

"A lot of law firms really like to get involved with [Urban Debate leagues]," she said. "Lawyers are debaters at heart, right? So it's really nice to see how you can give [these kids] the confidence to be a lawyer. I think without debate, I probably wouldn't have been a lawyer."

Lam said she went through a sort of "evolution" through debate: becoming more confident, a more eloquent speaker and a more critical thinker. These skills—along with research and persuasive writing—are a large part of what Lam does at the firm.

"Those definitely paid off now—I can type like nobody's business," she said.

For Lam, judging the NYCUDL Summer Institute tournament was a reunion with the league and an opportunity for reflection to see how far she's come.

"I see myself in a lot of these kids, [especially] the ones that are too scared to fill their speech time and are frazzled about standing up in front of all these people trying to make an argument," she said. "It's nice to be back [because] I started there, and I've grown so much since then. I think debate is a huge part of that, and it's exciting to see the next generation get to do it, too."

NYCUDL2

NYCUDL Executive Director Amisha Mody Mehta (right) serves ice cream sundaes to students and coaches after the debate tournament on the final day of the league's Summer Institute. Mody Mehta said the focus on the... NYCUDL Executive Director Amisha Mody Mehta (right) serves ice cream sundaes to students and coaches after the debate tournament on the final day of the league's Summer Institute. Mody Mehta said the focus on the camp is less on winning the debate rounds and more about forming life skills that will help students in the future. More NYCUDL

This is hopefully not the last time Lam will get involved with the Urban Debate system to help ensure more students are included in debate—an activity she notes has "a huge barrier of entry."

Not only does debate require a lot of time and energy, but it is typically an activity for wealthy students at private schools. Lam said Urban Debate leagues are a huge part of bridging that gap of accessibility for minority students in low-income areas.

Mody Mehta said she views debate as a youth development opportunity.

"It's not different than, like, Little League, where everybody should have equal playing time, everyone should have an opportunity to learn," she said. "You can't be great at something if you haven't been taught how to do it [but] if you can't access it, then that's a whole different story."

Former debater goes from "goofy" teacher to coach to Boston league manager
NAUDL fellowship helps put debaters on career paths using lawyers' advice
D.C. debater uses argument skills to enact change in city schools

The league is working to make debate more accessible for the thousands of students in the league. This includes expanding opportunities for students to work toward college debate scholarships and bringing in non-debater staff who work in education to create curriculum helping teachers build debate programs in schools.

The NYCUDL's goal, Mody Mehta said, is to not only get students to start debating but to stay debating.

"You have to make it fun because not everybody has a win on day one," she said. "And when you already don't think you belong in the space [and] you don't have any wins, you're kind of like, 'Well, I don't belong here, I'm not coming back.'"

Additionally, when the NYCUDL debaters visited a law firm office this summer, Mody Mehta said she made it a point to ask the firm to introduce students to attorneys of color "so that they could see themselves reflected in the firm."

"When people make you feel like you belong, then you have the confidence to go tackle the parts that are more difficult or you thought weren't for you," she said.

At the end of the summer session, Mody Mehta is looking forward to expanding programming and educational opportunities to keep students engaged and growing.

"We're giving them those skills to get them to a better position than where they are," she said. "Sure, we've kept them out of trouble, but what skills are we giving them? If they spend that much time with us, I think it's incumbent upon us to do that."

Request Reprint & Licensing, Submit Correction or view Editorial Guidelines

Events

Minnesota Lawmaker Is 'Blown Away' by Student Debaters at Twin Cities Event

Minnesota state Representative Cedric Frazier, who will be honored at a Minnesota Urban Debate League fundraiser, said engaging students is "vitally important."

Five Finalists Selected for 2025-2026 Policy Debate Topic

U.S. military presence, India and the Arctic were among the top five topics picked at the 2024 policy debate topic selection meeting in Iowa last weekend.

SVUDL Debater Says I RESOLVE Features Issues 'My Own Family Experiences'

Junior Chloe Truong told Newsweek that "when I joined the I RESOLVE team, we were talking about issues that were actively impacting communities today."