Spanish Fall 2022 Update

The Cornell Spanish Debate (Sociedad de Debate en Español) has been getting back on track during the Fall 2022 semester! We began the course by recruiting over 20 new members at Clubfest and the Latino Living Centre, all ranging from various colleges and Spanish proficiency levels. The team has now a consolidated base of debaters from a variety of Spanish-speaking countries (namely Mexico, Colombia, Venezuela, Puerto Rico, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Spain) that attend weekly lectures and debate practices to train for future competitions Over the semester, over 15 Spanish Cornell debaters competed in 3 tournaments, being for most of them their first tournaments ever: Cornell IV, USUDC and Torneo Metropolitano de Debate (Mexico City, Mexico). The most notable achievements include reaching novice finals and ranking 10th best novice speaker at Cornell IV and ranking 2nd, 6th and 10th best novice speakers at Torneo Metropolitano de Debate in Mexico City. Finally, in terms of outreach, in early October the Spanish Debate Team at Cornell organized an online showcase debate with USAID in celebration of Hispanic Heritage Month and with the support of the ILR School. Four senior members of the team debated the motion “Should we prioritize vocational education over higher education?” and shared their insight about the role of debate in advancing education from an international development perspective. We look forward to continue growing our team and debate experiences in the spring semester!