Philadelphia Scholastic Debate League Finals a Success!

The Philadelphia Scholastic Debate League (PSDL) completed its ten weeks of competition with a final debate tournament at The University of Pennsylvania on December 14. The school champion was Masterman High School, with top team and speaker points prizes going to students from George Washington, Masterman, Constitution High School, and Science Leadership Academy.

The PSDL is run by ASAP in partnership with Penn for Youth Debate.   For the 2011 season, over 56 teams participated from 21 Philadelphia public high schools, all coached by school district teachers. The Wednesday debate competitions ran through the fall, with students researching and debating one topic per month in public forum debate.

Wednesday’s competition started with a motivational speech from Seth Williams, Philadelphia’s district attorney. Addressing the room full of high schoolers, he told them that debate would serve them well in life, citing the many skills assistant district attorneys use every day that can be developed through debate- such as knowing both sides of an argument and thinking on your feet.

Williams also took a chance to share his own story with the students, talking about his early successes and failures that led him to the District Attorney’s office. After graduating from Central High School, he attended West Point for one year but had to leave due to illness – “an allergy to math,” but wound up highly successful at Penn State, graduating as student body president. While he never imagined that is where he would wind up, he “never gave up,” and urged the students never to give up either.

“Whatever your reason for going to school, whether its debate, or the tater tots, or sports, find some reason to go to school and go there every day,” he told the students, citing the difficult statistic that the majority of those arrested in Philadelphia have one thing in common: they did not graduate from high school.

“I am very proud of all of you,” Williams ended, wishing all the students luck. Teams them split up to various rooms to debate December’s topic, “Resolved: Current Income Disparities in the United States Threaten Democratic Ideals.”

The top three rounds had three judges to ensure the most accurate outcome: a coach, an outside experienced debate judge, and a Penn for Youth Debate volunteer. Debates lasted an hour, at which point the totals were quickly determined for an awards ceremony.

Megan Hess-Homeier, ASAP’s debate coordinator, first recognized the commitment and hard work of all the teams before announcing the top speaker points, teams, and school champion.

“The skills you’ve gained from debate will serve you your whole life, and I can say that, as a former speech and debate participant,” Meg told the students.

Justin Ennis, ASAP’s Execuetive Director, also acknowledged the hard work Ms. Hess-Homeier put into debate over the 10 week season to make it a success. The awards were as follows:

Championship Teams 
1. George Washington A team, Raisa Masud and Sam Shanazarov
2. Masterman A team, Melanie Millwood and Maia Reumann-Moore
3. Constitution A team, Deion Jordan and Kayla McCoy

Individual Speaker Champions 
1. Desislava Gergishanova, George Washington
2. Raisa Masud, George Washington
3. Maia Reumann-Moore, Masterman
4. Jeff Kessler, Science Leadership Academy

School Sweepstakes 

1. Masterman

2. Central

3. George Washington

Full league standings can be found on the ASAP debate page. Pictures of the finals round on ASAP's facebook page.