Congratulations to Greg and Zach for their fantastic debating!

The conversation served as an “eye opener,” challenging conventional assumptions about youth and the issues surrounding urban education.

By the end of the roundtable conversations, many agreed that youth have the “first-hand experience to generate creative solutions to the problems facing urban schools.”

The next Roundtable discussion will be on February 9 in Oakland, California,

Read more at The Norman Transcript: Urban Experiences Give Debaters Unique Insight - Rashid and his debate partner Dominique Baker discuss their debate experiences and styles and their goal to be the first black team to win the NDT title. Campbell speaks proudly of his time in the BAUDL.

Click here to see a video of Rashid giving a speech on health care from his time as a debater.

Zakiya, Allie and Leonard of Skyline show some of the BAUDL spirit!

The voices of BAUDL youth rang out loud and clear at the 2011 Bingham Winter Classic Championship last weekend, where more than five dozen young people from 11 schools debated for two full days to see who would become the Fall Champions.

Renowned law firm Bingham McCutchen sponsored the tournament and ten Bingham lawyers gave their time as judges, listening deeply and giving feedback to our young debaters.  Dozens of BAUDL youth have dreams of careers in law, and dozens more are considering that path - but so few get a chance to engage seriously with high-level legal professionals.

“Debate is a place where young people find the strength to advocate,” says BAUDL alum Jessica Winsey, herself considering a career in law. “But meeting these lawyers, and seeing that they care enough to listen to us, care about our future careers - that pushes us over the top. It makes the difference between having talent in debate and using that talent to make a successful career.”

The Varsity Finals round on Sunday was electrifying. The team of Greg Belvin and Zach Seidl of Skyline High School barely edged out the partnership of William Hampton Bruce and Jason Auro from Cal Prep, and passions ran high as evidence flew about space, the military, and even the political impacts of meditation. Click here to see highlights - the video quality is low, but the argument quality is very high.

Anna Xu of Skyline High School reigned as champion in the Junior Varsity division, while Ennis Smith of Bunche High School and Tyler Winters of Cal Prep won top honors as novices. Greg Belvin, III of Skyline High School, who many will remember from his turn on the front page of the San Francisco Chronicle, won top speaker in Varsity. The Top JV Speaker was Anna Xu of Skyline High School, and in the Novice Division the Top Speaker was Gabe Ganoso of Skyline High School.

The next BAUDL tournament is on Februrary 4 - following close on the heels of the BAUDL Bash on January 24. Look forward to seeing you soon!

Robin helped to co-found the Leading with Debate Fellowship to train a new generation of advocates.

If you’re looking for BAUDL alum Robin Bonner these days, you are likely to find her in the corridors of San Francisco City Hall, crusading for a dropout prevention initiative she helped design from the ground up. Yet this impressive college freshman, who has become one of the most respected voices on the San Francisco Youth Commission, was once herself on the edge of dropping out.

Robin entered Washington High School during an incredibly hard time in her life. With her father absent, she was in the care of a single mom who worked long hours to support her children. At school she felt alienated, finding her strong voice always silenced in large traditional classrooms. “I always had this critical eye, and strong opinions – and at Washington, they weren’t trying to hear that. I got kicked out of my share of classrooms, and when I came back to class I felt blacklisted, like they didn’t want me participating.”

Though her big voice got Robin into trouble at Washington, in the BAUDL it became her greatest strength. When she transferred to Downtown High School, the school’s debate team was a place for her to flourish and to find a home. In her words, “it was what got me to come out of my shell; it was everything I needed at that time in my life. Debate showed me that my natural aggression was something I could channel to make a difference.” Finding a place for her brilliance to take root, she rapidly rose to BAUDL’s highest levels of competition.

Debating at these high levels was a challenge at first even for the brilliant Ms. Bonner, but with the support of her coaches, she built skills there that were far beyond reach in traditional classrooms. “Debate has been great for me because there is no limit on what you can learn,” she says. “My writing improved, my reading sped up, and all of a sudden I was able to skim through multiple documents quickly to support my arguments. It was what I needed to get myself ready for college.”

Now she uses the skills of rhetoric, research, and critical thinking she learned in debate to help young people like she once was. She is a co-founder of the Leading with Debate Fellowship, BAUDL’s new program that helps young people connect the skills they learn in debate to real-world issues. As a leader of this program, Robin spends hours helping BAUDL youth channel their frustration into positive public leadership.

As with all of our debaters, her words are the best: “The LDF is growing in my heart because I see a lot of myself in the kids I work with. I see curiosity, I see struggle, and eventually enlightenment. I see a lot of them being super-smart and not knowing what to do with it, and I know how to guide them out of that place of frustration and help them become the leaders they are waiting to be.” It is deeply inspiring that Robin and so many other alumni have not only benefited individually from this program, but are now working with us to give back to the communities from which they came.

From workshops to policy research - and even to accounting - JWin does it all.

Jessica Winsey, a graduate of Street Academy and a BAUDL alum, thrives on a compact schedule. When given the option to attend either her senior prom or the 2009 BAUDL League City Championships, Jessica chose both. She debated her way to a perfect record on Saturday, quickly threw on heels and danced the night away, and then promptly woke at dawn to compete on the second day of the tournament, advancing to the final round of the City Championships.

For Jessica, the weekend was business as usual – a small feat considering the demands of her already hectic senior year. “I was mixed up in the wrong crowd and wasn’t doing so well,” explains Jessica in regards to her formative high school years. Consumed by the pressures of drinking, smoking, and popular cliques at Skyline High School in Oakland, Jessica finished her junior year with a .99 GPA – 60 credits behind her fellow classmates.

Determined to graduate on time, Jessica transferred to Street Academy, where she found her footing in debate. “I did better in school when I started debate,” Jessica remarks, deeming debate her “center” and a source of authenticity. Energized by a top 20 finish at her first competition, Jessica attended tournament after tournament, accumulating a record of four straight tournament wins that has yet to be beaten.

She did so while maintaining a rigid weekday regimen: attending debate practices in the afternoon, Piedmont Community College classes in the evening, and finishing homework late at night. With persistence, Jessica walked away from Street Academy with a high school diploma, a transcript 13 credits over the requirement and the best debate record in the League. Most importantly, Jessica found herself. “Debate,” Jessica reflects, “informed me of who I am.”

One of debate’s greatest benefits for Jessica involved her mother and father. Debate competitions brought the divided Winsey family together. Her parents attended every debate tournament. Jessica’s mother would run through speed drills with her. Her father would pass on articles relevant to the debate topic. Punishments even revolved around debate: “If my grades began to slip, my mom would say, ‘no debating!” Through Jessica’s relationship with her parents, debate ensured that she was on top of her academic performance.

Today, Jessica still juggles a wild array of activities with her trademark work ethic, drive, and intelligence. She is studying political science at the City College of San Francisco, where she has been a member of the debate team. Known around the BAUDL office as “JWin,” Jessica now carries numerous responsibilities for BAUDL, even helping with organizing financial records. In her words, “Some people seem to fear Quickbooks, but I look forward to the many expense reports that the future holds.”

An aspiring attorney and US Senator with hopes of attending Columbia Law School, Jessica attributes her success to debate. “Debate changed me…it was my strength and my staff to hold on to. Without debate,” Jessica concludes, “I can only guess what else I would be doing.”

Kyla inspires dozens more youth to take up the challenge of debate as a BAUDL intern.

Kyla has come a long way since those early days of debate, and she has brought dozens of young people along with her. During her junior year, Kyla was named captain of the Skyline High debate team, and traveled to Chicago for the Urban Debate League National Championships. She let her loud voice shine bright in public debates, recruited others to join the team, and racked up victory after victory. By the end of her junior year, the Skyline debate team was a dominating force in the BAUDL.

For Kyla, “debate helped give me the confidence to hold my own in classes. It helped me channel my energy toward achievement and away from trouble.” During her senior year, Kyla took her debate skills and her academic achievements to a new level. Where once she struggled to pass classes, she began bring home As and Bs on report cards.

No one could have been happier with her progress than Kyla’s grandmother, who passed away the day after seeing Kyla featured as a speaker to an audience of thousands in the Skyline High graduation ceremony. “She always told me that she wanted to see me graduate, and then she would be done,” says Kyla, who still feels her grandma’s loss deeply. “I am so glad she got to see me give that speech and walk the stage with diploma in hand.”

Now Kyla works as an intern at BAUDL, mentors at one of the schools in the league and also attends the College of Alameda as a full time student. She plans to get her B.A. in Psychology, with a minor in Political Science to keep her love for debate alive. “BAUDL can do so much for young people,” she says. “I am ready to do my best to see it expand further and make even more of an impact.”

Meet the debaters below!

With public budgets in crisis and crucial programs on the chopping block, young people in the Bay Area face two serious problems: their future seems more and more uncertain, and the political systems around them seem to care less and less about what they think.

On October 26th, a group of San Francisco youth will attempt to tackle both problems, speaking out on their city’s budget crisis and offering positive proposals for change. As part of the Bay Area Urban Debate League (BAUDL), these young people have spent the past months researching city budgets across America and preparing themselves to debate both sides of dozens of reform ideas.

Says debater Marshon Darden-Smith of the June Jordan School for Equity: “Our generation has ideas and we see what’s going on around us – we see things from different lenses, we come from different communities, and we have ideas that can make an impact.” Her partner Lorren Dangerfield echoes her sentiments, noting that “these issues affect us as young people. What they choose now is what’s going to shape our lives later. These are our decisions, too.”

Downtown High debate alum Robin Bonner has been working to coordinate the Leading with Debate Fellowship, a public leadership program run by the BAUDL. Recently inducted as a member of the San Francisco Youth Commission, Robin sees her work as a chance to give back to young people like herself: “As an alum of the BAUDL program, I am honored to be in a position to mentor students who are living the life I used to lead.”

According to Bonner, the Great Debates are a must-see event because “unlike many political events, it will be unfiltered. Young people can be open to speak the way they want on real issues without the need to censor themselves. Their opinions will be grounded in research, but they will also be raw and lively.”

See these amazing debaters Wednesday night!

Judging makes a significant impact in the lives of BAUDL students. Join us November 2!

On Wednesday, November 2nd from 6:30pm - 7:30pm, we are hosting a Judge Training at our offices at 285 17th Street in downtown Oakland.

Our tournaments depend on a pool of volunteer judges. By evaluating arguments on topics ranging from police-community relations to space policy and providing feedback to our students, our judges play an invaluable role in the tournament experience — and in advancing the BAUDL’s mission.

We are seeking volunteer judges who are energetic, encouraging, and sensitive to the challenges facing urban students.

Please give your RSVP by Tuesday, November 1!
Direct any questions to:
Perry Green, Program Director - perry@baudl.org - 510.575.9131

The team from June Jordan took home the Spirit Award, an invisible - but extremely important - symbol of the dedication and heart they have shown.

The 2011 Bay Area Urban Debate League Season Opener was a smashing success! Nearly a hundred students form four cities in the Bay Area took the long trek up to the University of California-Berkeley on Saturday, October 8th to make their voices heard at one of the largest tournaments in BAUDL history.

For the first time, our Varsity Final Round -in which the top two teams duel it out in front of the big audience - was judged by a panel of community leaders including Joshua Johnson of KQED, Ellen Cushing of the East Bay Express and Dan Siegel of Siegel and Yee. This weekend’s tournament would not have been such a success without these judges - or without the dozens of volunteers who gave their time. And as for our amazing coaches and students: we are full of respect and admiration for all that you do to keep this vibrant community going.

Next tournament is November 5 - we need help finding enough judges to serve our rapidly growing base of students, so please learn more about how to volunteer!  Click below for full tournament results, and to find out more about our debaters…

Tournament Champions in the Varsity Division were a team of twins, Jack & Kim of Fremont-Media Academy, coached by Andres Gannon of recent NPR fame. Junior Varsity Tournament Champions were Kwodwo & Dionne of Emery Secondary School. Novice Tournament Champions were Kendrick & Jaida of Skyline High School.

The Top Speaker in the Varsity Division was Greg Belvin, III of Skyline High School, who many will remember from his turn on the front page of the San Francisco Chronicle. The Top JV Speaker was Kwodwo Moore of Emery Secondary School, and in the Novice Division the Top Speaker was Anna Xu of Skyline High School.