¿Qué ondas?

When I moved to the States, there was a fear that made me hold my breath. It wasn’t not fitting in, it wasn’t not knowing the language, it wasn’t failure; it was forgetting my Spanish. A bilingual high school remedied that fairly quickly, and it was there that the debate team arrived with the space to push Spanish speakers to invest in the growth of their first language.

Debate itself did not enchant me, and I lasted only three months on the team, but it was comforting to know that a program existed where community and your native language could live together. It was a revolutionary bubble living in the walls of American education, and it was not alone; multiple bubbles were forming all across the city. Now they grow all across the country!

That bubble stayed with me, and it wasn’t until I coached a Debate en Español team that I saw what it grows in the people who step inside it, the unique perspectives and capabilities this activity is meant to develop in young people. I saw it the day my shyest debater raised her hand to answer a question on the board: “I am sure I didn’t get the right answer, but I would like to share my process.” That was when I knew there is a power in debate that follows these kids for the rest of their lives.

Now, as the Boston Debate League heads into its 20th anniversary and I head into my fifth year here, I can honestly say that I no longer hold my breath; the bubble that found me by accident became the work I return to every season. An organization that puts its faith in the power of young people to lead needs our support to keep making a difference.

Anyway, anything helps: a donation, or sharing this with your friends. 

Let’s help the Boston Debate League run for another 20 years!