Nominations: Nominations closed
Voting: Voting closed
Election
Category
Candidates
It's been a long ride, we're finally here. When I first joined the debate society, I didn't know anyone. But I found it was the people who kept me coming back. Debate soc. has done a lot for me, I'd like this to be an opportunity for me to give back.
I want next year's committee to be a lot more connected to what individuals want. So if I haven't reached out to you, please reach out to me. I know I don't have the word count so here is a shortlist:
- Create separate beginner and advanced seminars, run additional advanced sessions in the week. bring in more external speakers and have a stronger ProAM system.
- Open up more competition opportunities for novices, and prioritise them in tournament slotting.
- Dedicated curriculum week by week
- A giant spreadsheet with all the information for upcoming competitions.
TO is not just the ideas you have, it's about experience.
I think one of the strongest benefits I offer is that I'm one of the most active and experienced debaters in the society. I've done Worlds, Euros; 20 other competitions this year and was the Chief Adjudicator running the Queen Mary IV Competition. I've memed my way through finals, and crashed out rounds w 68s.
Vote Rohan!
As a non-schoolie who has gotten quite into debate in the last year, I want to make debate more accessible firstly to not limit people away but also to cultivate a healthy size within the UCL debating circuit. I have been so fortunate to be able to learn so much about debating from online resources and friends and rapidly improved since I started, so would love to be given the opportunity to share what I have learnt.
As a training officer, I will be able to offer the following:
- workshops for individuals who have little to no background in debate, but are geniunely interested
- workshops, but also online resources & basic drills for people who are already semi-active within debate but want to target specific skills they need to improve.
- advice and support for people who want to get started in intervarsity debate but do not know how to navigate the competitive scene (I am also quite new but have done 10+ comps including judging and speaking)
- I will try my best to get external speakers to provide more advanced workshops tailored at improving specific skills for those who are already active within the competitive scene.
Keep in mind, I am still quite new to this. So if I am fortunate enough to get this role, I am completely open to constructive ideas either to make debate sessions more educational, fun, accessible or whatever your goals in debate is.
I'll level with the voting body; I am not qualified enough to train UCL's advanced speakers, running the Thursday sessions. That being said, I feel as a training officer, I would be able to help UCL debate substantially. Currently, the structure of training sessions is related to broadly covering motion types, or offering tidbits. For the more experienced debaters, this is a largely redundant exercise before the advanced room debate begins. For the beginners, they struggle, as they are still trying to stand on their own two feet as debaters Consequently, these training sessions are not effective enough, and not engaging enough. My goal as a training officer is to organise both a beginner and advanced session. The beginner session should be constructed simply around establishing fundamentals that allow progression to an intermediate level. Explaining terminology, how to create mechanisms, or how to define a motion properly. I believe I am uniquely qualified to run this training session due to my own relative inexperience which allows me to understand where beginners are in error and the best ways to improve. I also have ideas for whoever my partner would be as a TO, such as spending more time breaking down the strongest debaters in the world, scouting other schools, and analysing the trends of motions at competitions. Therefore, if you would like UCL debate to transition to an experience that is better for the beginner and advanced debaters, vote Cassius for training officer.
I've enjoyed serving the Debating Society as first year representative this year, listening + addressing first-year concerns, encouraging + assisting novice debaters in entering the competitive space, and more.
Qualifications:
- UCL Team A at World Universities Debating Championships (WUDC)
- Penn Pre-WUDC Novice Finals
- UCL Debating Society first year representative
- Champion of Harvard National Forensics Tournament (Public Forum, international division)
- NSDA Premier Distinction
- Coached debate for 2 years (paid employment)
- Founder and President of my high school's debate club (which is still thriving now), providing intensive training and tourney prep (my novices entering Berkeley Parliamentary finals, placing at UBC, etc)
- UCL Lawyers Without Borders events officer (giving me greater breadth and depth of experience in helping run a society)
Why I love debate and am passionate about facilitating improvement for members of the society:
- i like debate
- i like debaters at ucl
- i like seeing my people win
Thanks for reading! x