Does Academic Debate Change Students Lives? (Mexico City)
This is a project that started out with a handful of schools in Mexico City and now it is within our realm of possibility to create a full blown secondary and university national debate circuit as Mexico prepares its run up to host the World Universities Debating Championships in Protected content . This is the first time it has ever been hosted in Latin America or the Caribbean. Who would have thought that we could come so far in just 6 years? WE DID!
Despite what you might see and hear in the media, Mexico is a beautiful country with many wonderful people and fantastic young men and women who truly value education. These students and I know that academic debate can be the game changer for Mexico! Nothing teaches students skills such as public speaking, negotiating, critical thinking, logic, team work, research and many more life-long-learner skills that students need to be successful and lead fulfilled lives like academic debate. Students and their parents come to me or write to me every single year and say, "This changed my (son's / daughter's) life." They say it when they are in the program and they say it five, ten, fifteen, twenty and now twenty five years later.
If I did not believe in this project, there is no way I could come to my friends and family and ask them for thousands of dollars to give scholarships to eager young debaters as I have done over the past three years. That is just not in my nature. However, because I know the power of academic debate, and I am in the fortuitous position to help make this dream become a reality in Mexico, I come to you with NO HESITATION to ask you to contribute to this worthy, worthy cause.
Please contribute whatever you can. We receive donations between $10 and thousands of dollars each year and every penny of it has gone to help scores of students who otherwise might not be able to afford it to attend the Mexican World Schools Summer Debate Camp each year.
So, you have the power to change a kid's life right now! Will you do it?! You can take my word for it, these kids are worth it. Click here to Support the Mexican World Schools Summer Debate Camp and Team Mexico. Protected content
I am forever in your debt,
Mark Webber
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Camp Director
Team Mexico Coach
Asociación Mexicana de Debate
English Speaking Union - Mexico
