Seawolf Debaters travel to China, promote academic debate
by Kathleen McCoy |
Members of the University of Alaska Anchorage Seawolf Debate program recently returned
from a trip to China to promote academic debating.Supported by a grant from the Alaska
International Education Foundation, the trip took the team from Beijing to Xi'an to
participate in two different debating events.
The first stop was the Foreign Languages Teaching and Research Press (FLTRP) Cup,
the national English language debating tournament. More than 500 students and their
instructors, representing over 130 colleges and universities from around China, attended
the tournament. Steve Johnson, UAA's Director of Debate, participated in training
and served as Chief Adjudicator for the event. Other members of the Seawolf Debate
program mentored Chinese debaters and served as adjudicators for the competitive rounds.
From there, the Seawolves traveled to Xi'an Jiaotong University to participate in
the International Debate Education Association's international tournament. Approximately
30 other American students from the West Coast and over 150 Chinese students joined
the Alaska debaters in Central China to train and compete. Each of UAA's debaters
was paired with a Chinese partner for the event to enter the competition as "friendship
teams." Though they competed against teams of native English speakers, all four of
UAA's friendship teams advanced to the elimination rounds and three of those four
teams were selected to participate in the "friendship" final round-open only to teams
comprised of one Chinese and one American student. Two of UAA's debaters took the
top two individual speaking prizes at the tournament: Michael Rose and David Childers
were ranked second and first individual speakers, respectively, out of the over 200
debaters that participated in the event.
In all, the UAA students learned a great deal about Chinese culture, introduced a
significant number of Chinese students to the educational experience of academic debating
and made some life-long friends. The debaters will take the rest of the summer off
to recuperate from a challenging competitive season. The team will return in the
fall to open the 2007-2008 competitive season with a trip to Los Angeles to compete
in the Claremont Colleges Invitational.
For more information, please contact Steven Johnson at 786-4391.
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