McKinley Middle School Goes Undefeated in Regional Debate Competition with Poly Student Coaches

A group of Poly students has been mentoring 12 McKinley Middle School students in the art of debate. Dario S. ’23 shared that in the first meeting with the students, one individual asked if McKinley had won a single debate. At the recent Harvard-Westlake Middle School Public Debate Program (MSPDP), McKinley won all four rounds that they competed in and ranked third overall in the competition.

Poly students began coaching McKinley students in debate a few years ago. The program is currently run by Julieta G. ’21, Kate D. ’22, Dario S. ’23, and Sabrina Z ’23. The students expressed that although they’ve shared insight into debate jargon and styles of debate, the McKinley students possessed all the talent and analytical thinking necessary to succeed at debate.

“The students had all the skills needed, they just needed a space to develop these skills,” said Sabrina Z. “We hope that this space will be around for many years to come.”

The group shared that they have seen a lot of growth in the students and witnessed them become more passionate about debate as time has gone on. The McKinley debate program has been meeting regularly over Zoom, and though they haven’t met each other in person yet the practices still function as they would in normal circumstances.

“We mainly split practices and do research in breakout rooms and sometimes full practice debates over Zoom,” said Kate D.  “It’s more challenging to get engagement because we are building relationships entirely over Zoom.”

Though Julieta will be graduating this year, Kate, Dario, and Sabrina will continue to mentor and coach the students. Sabrina even shared that one McKinley student hopes to go on to major in a field related to debate.
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