Jun 27, 2023 At 02:38 PM EDT
The New York Parliamentary Debate League is not affiliated with the National Association for Urban Debate Leagues.
On an afternoon in late May, dozens of high school debaters hailing from New York to California gathered to compete in a hybrid tournament in Manhattan. While most of the students were there to debate, several other teenagers were the ones running the competition.
The New York Parliamentary Debate League (NYPDL) started in 2016 as a student-run organization aimed at creating opportunities for high school kids to participate in parliamentary debate.
Parliamentary debate, also known as "parli," is a form of debate that involves two teams of two speakers debating a "motion" concerning modern political and policy issues.
The "government" team presents a motion—the topic or subject of the debate—and the "opposition" tries to find the weaknesses in the other side's argument. Each side presents responses and rebuttals with only 15 to 20 minutes of preparation and no outside sources.
The debate topic changes in each round of debate, and while one side is speaking, the other team can ask questions or make statements, known as points of information, to clarify any issues being discussed.
"You have to [think] on the spot," said NYPDL Executive Director Molly Bordoff, a senior at Trinity School in Manhattan, told Newsweek. "It's really about critical thinking. It's really the logic of it, rather than how much research you put into this [or] how much time do you have on weeknights to cut cards."
Bordoff started parliamentary debate during the pandemic and joined the NYPDL board last year as a member of the outreach committee, which facilitates recruitment efforts. She said this style of debate presents more of a community than the other debate forms.
"There's much more of a sense of mutual respect of conversation," she said. "In rounds, people are much more likely to become friends with each other. Because it was a time where it was difficult to see people, I started to find a lot of community."
While the league started off serving only New York City schools, the virtual shift that occurred during the COVID-19 pandemic allowed schools from across the country to participate. Bordoff said opening up involvement contributed to "the overall diversity of people at our tournaments."
"Honestly, COVID was a real blessing for this league in the sense that it allowed us to expand beyond what used to be a league of two or three private schools to a league that is now accessible to people all over the country," said Zach Berg, a junior at the Dalton School in Manhattan, who serves as one of NYPDL's two tournament directors.
The NYPDL held its championship tournament at the end of May, which included four teams from California and one team from Connecticut. In the end, Sophie Rukin, the outreach director for the NYPDL, and her partner Emily Grant, from Horace Mann School in the Bronx, emerged the winners.
Students can join the league as part of a school team or as an independent debater. The league's outreach committee is responsible for recruitment. It finds and contacts schools with existing parli teams or schools that might be interested because they have mock trial or other debate teams, Bordoff said.
The committee takes a bottom-up approach that targets students, coaches and teachers who might be interested to encourage them to advocate for parli debate within their own communities.
Once interested parties reach out to the league, the onboarding committee steps in to "get new [parli teams] off the ground," Bordoff said.
The committee tries to be "as flexible as possible" to help teams develop the capacity to compete at tournaments, and it meets with new teams and coaches twice a week to teach them how the league works.
The NYPDL hosts several online and in-person parliamentary debate tournaments throughout the school year, as well as a free online summer camp—all organized by its student-run executive board.
This not only gives students key leadership experience but enhances the student debater experience.
"I think it makes us uniquely equipped to give students what they want," Bordoff said. "We are able to really bridge that gap much easier and give people a more fitted experience."
Ollie Feder, a sophomore at the Dalton School in Manhattan, said he finds NYPDL tournaments a lot more efficient than other competitions he's attended.
"You really can't even tell that students are running it because it's so organized," he said.
This was the first year Feder and his debate partner qualified for the championship tournament, after failing to participate in enough tournaments last year. His experience inspired him to apply for several NYPDL board positions for next year.
"I want to do my part to make sure that the NYPDL continues to be such a well-run organization, and I want to also give back to the debate community that has benefited me so much," he said.
Having their peers on the board makes the league leadership more approachable for high school debaters.
Quinton Gallant, a junior at the Dalton School who also competed in the championship, said he appreciates that the NYPDL board members have direct experience with this form of debate.
"They know what's best and what's not, so when it comes to new rules, they do everything in the best interest for the most fun debates," he said, adding that the motions the board chooses for debates are more catered to teenagers' interests than some college-run tournaments he's attended.
Running a national debate league as a high school student also comes with certain challenges. As a tournament director, Berg oversees the organization and execution of in-person and online tournaments and the distribution of resources to teams and judges—a job he says is both difficult and extremely rewarding.
"Knowing that it is my responsibility whether a tournament is able to function is an experience that I think that most people my age are simply not able to have," he said. "The entire league does rely on [me]."
Berg and the other board members feel they often have to affirm their legitimacy when working with adult-run leagues.
"We communicate with a lot of adults [who] will look at us and think we're not a real league," he said. "And we have to go above and beyond to prove to adult coaches that our league is legitimate even though it is run by students."
Balancing league responsibilities and school and debate obligations is tough, with Berg saying the NYPDL is always on his mind.
"I'm a junior in high school for crying out loud," Berg said. "I just took the SAT and during the reading section, I was thinking about the championship and different tiebreakers that we were going to use [and] how to make it as fun as possible."
The board is made up of mostly juniors and seniors in high school who are dealing with rigorous academic workloads and college admissions. Their dedication to the league, however, is a testament to how community debate inspires students to truly care.
"Every single person on the board wants to be there and wants to be there not for a line on their college application but because they are willing to spend the time to actually make the league a better place," Berg said.
Accessibility has always been the goal of the NYPDL and continues to guide the board as the league grows. The NYPDL's online tournaments are completely free, and in-person competitions cost about $25 per entry, with financial aid options. Many debate tournaments are expensive, but Bordoff said it is essential for the NYPDL to have no barrier to entry.
"A lot of schools really don't have the infrastructure to put together a team and then also raise the funds to go to tournaments, especially in-person tournaments that are expensive to attend," she said.
This includes increasing the involvement of public and under-resourced schools that are typically excluded from the debate space.
"As a league, we want to change that legacy [of exclusion] and make sure that everyone can feel empowered through debate," Berg said. "Debate has been so incredibly important to all of us, and we want to make sure that as many people as possible are able to experience that."
Seeing novice teams grow and become competitive programs is one of the most rewarding experiences for Bordoff. Her goal, and the goal of the board, remains building that inclusive community.
"I think for me, the mission has been and should continue to be being an option for everyone [and] being something that people from all over the country, from all different socioeconomic backgrounds, come together and enjoy this activity," she said. "I think debate is something that should not have barriers—it should be something that is able to be accessed by everyone."
