May 10, 2023 At 04:24 PM EDT
This weekend, eight high school teams from around the world will compete in the final round of the annual International Public Policy Forum (IPPF) at the home of the nonpartisan Council on Foreign Relations think tank in New York City.
The IPPF started in 2001, when it was called the National Public Policy Forum and was only open to U.S. high school teams. In 2009, the tournament expanded to be an international competition.
It was founded by Bill Brewer—a lawyer and co-founder of the Brewer Foundation, a private, nonprofit organization that manages a variety of educational outreach programs in connection with the Brewer, Attorneys & Counselors law firm—and John Sexton, a debate coach, law professor and former president of New York University.
In its 22 years, the contest has grown to reach hundreds of schools and thousands of students around the globe.
The contest is free to enter, and the finalists have their travel expenses paid for. It is open to all schools—both private and public—with the winning team receiving a $10,000 grand prize.
Brewer said it's important for the contest to not only be free, but "free plus." To make the contest more accessible, the IPPF sends materials and staff to teach students at underfunded schools about how to participate in the contest.
This year, the teams debated for months on a particular topic: "Resolved: The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) is an effective model for international cooperation."
The IPPF is different from other public policy debates, which are largely comprised of oral arguments, because it includes rounds of essays that are exchanged by participants.
Teams submit qualifying essays on a topic in October, and the top 64 teams are selected by judges to advance to the single-elimination written debate tournament. In these rounds, teams exchange emailed essays that judges review, determining which teams move on. The teams are narrowed down to an "Elite Eight" that are selected to compete in oral debates at the IPPF Finals in New York City.
Another unique aspect of this competition is the question portion, which features a panel of judges who are experts in the field the students have been studying for months.
"Not only are these kids cross-examining each other, but now you've got lawyers and successful businesspeople and famous government officials sitting on a panel and asking you a bunch of questions about the topic that you've just debated. It's an exciting process," Brewer said.
Alexander Henage is a high school senior from the Wasatch Independent Debate League, a debate experience and class for secondary homeschool students in Utah. He and one of his teammates, Bronson Bishop, got to the round of 32 in the written portion of the contest last year and have advanced to the final round this year.
"I think one of the most exciting parts is the judge questions," Henage told Newsweek. "To actually have a judge talk with you and argue against you and push back against you, it's going to be a lot of fun."
The panel forces students to work collaboratively to understand arguments on all sides of the issue and be able to think for themselves on the fly.
"They have to be willing to modify when they hear a question from a judge that maybe gives them that different perspective on the argument that they hadn't found," said Christina Phillips, a debate coach from Notre Dame High School in Sherman Oaks, California, and a member of the IPPF Advisory Board who will be judging the finals this year. "They need to be able to adjust in that moment."
This year's finals include two international teams: Extraordinary Education Centre (EEC) Debate in Toronto and United World College of South East Asia in Singapore.
Max Rosen is a 20-year-old Canadian university student and debate coach for EEC Debate. His team has four students, including one who participated in last year's finals.
He said it's important to have an international presence at a competition that employs a more U.S.-based debate style.
"I like the way in which the topics are broadly international," he said. "It is [an] international competition, and it's nice that we don't see topics that are domestic to any country going forward."
Brewer said the IPPF hopes to see the tournament continue to attract more competitors and grow the ability to provide funding for those participants.
He said the skills of policy debate will help promote productive civil discourse and the principles of democracy around the world.
"Young people who learn skills that are required for debate actually learn to analyze issues, and the more they learn to debate and believe in their own ideas, the more committed they will be to the democratic process," he said. "They will want to have a voice in the government in the countries, towns [and] villages they live in, and want to participate in promoting their own ideas."
The other finalist teams include the Hockaday School in Dallas; Mountain View-Los Altos Speech and Debate in Mountain View, California; Mountain Vista High School in Highlands Ranch, Colorado; Notre Dame San Jose in San Jose, California; and Potomac Oak in Rockville, Maryland.
The final oral arguments will be held Saturday, May 6, at the Harold Pratt House in New York. The finals will air live on the IPPF Facebook page, with the semifinals beginning at 10:10 a.m. EST and the final debate at 3:30 p.m. EST.
