IDEA-NJFL Partial Results #3

Advancing to HUMOROUS INTERP Semifinals:

AB101
AP106
AP108
AQ102
AT101
AW102
AW103
AW104
AW105
AW106
AW107
AZ107


Advancing to PROSE Semifinals:

AZ119
AL101
AV102
AW108
AP115
AC109
AC103
AJ105
AA101
AQ103
AU109
AP114
AK101

IDEA-NJFL Partial Results #2

Advancing to PUBLIC FORUM DEBATE Semifinals:

AH101
AZ102
AZ104
AZ109

Advancing to POETRY Semifinals:

AT102
AP117
AG108
AA101
AF101
AZ121
AC109
AP118
AJ109
AZ107
AK101
AP105
AQ113
AQ115
AQ114

IDEA-NJFL Partial Results

Advancing to DUO Semifinals:

AC103-104
AC105-106
AH101-102
AJ103-109
AJ110-105
AP107-110
AQ110-102
AT101-102
AW101-102
AW103-104
AW105-106
AW107-108

Advancing to EXTEMP Semifinals:

AG101
AP106
AP120
AT107
AU117
AZ111
AZ115
AZ123
AZ124
AZ126
AZ127
AZ128

Advancing to ORATORY Semifinals:

AC108
AD103
AF101
AJ101
AP101
AP122
AQ116
AV107
AZ111
AZ127
AZ129
AZ130

Advancing to IMPROMPTU Semifinals:

AP106
AP111
AP120
AQ107
AQ117
AV102
AX101
AX106
AZ121
AZ123
AZ129
AZ133

Advancing to DRAMATIC INTERP Semifinals:

AJ101
AJ110
AQ101
AQ102
AS102
AT102
AT103
AV104
AW101
AW110
AZ111
AZ114

IDEA-NJFL Gets Intense...

As Day 2 heats up, the competition begins to move from prelims to elimination rounds. Some highlights:

Debaters verbally spar:

Interpers interpret things:

Postings for Quarters make dreams come true:

IDEA-NJFL Under Way

The 2008 IDEA-NJFL is well under way at Western Kentucky University in Bowling Green. Over 250 students from around the country are competing in a variety of events: humorous, dramatic, duo, poetry, and prose interpretations, oratory, impromptu, public forum debate and extemp speaking. Each event will break to at least semifinals and several schools will receive "school of excellence" awards for advancing students to those rounds.

Pictures and results will be posted here as the event continues.

alex.

BarCamp Istanbul

You can watch Marjan's presentation about Youth Journalism that he delivered on the BarCamp



or you can download John's presentation: Citizen Journalism and Youth Media also delivered on the BarCamp.

IDEA hosted 50 students in Amsterdam at the EYS 2008

From May 4-9 the International Debate Education Association hosted 50 participants from 6 countries - Bulgaria, Estonia, Lithuania, Romania, Slovakia and The Netherlands in an event called European Youth Speak: Unity in Diversity Exchange. There were only 6 countries, but at least 15 cultures were represented among this group. Each country nominated 7 students (16-21) and one university supervisor, with the emphasis on creating as diverse group as possible. AND truly, what an exchange of cultures! Pity you missed it.

On the first evening, during the icebreaking session, we started off with teaching each other the 3 most useful words in our all the languages and a survival tip for each country present. One lesson learnt for sure: in Estonia you don't hug or kiss unless you are boyfriends and girlfriends - and maybe not even then. Hint why the birth rate is so low in Estonia?! ☺

The next 2 days were devoted to transferring the set of skills needed for better communication. The trainers, Marcin and I focused the sessions on how to become more effective speakers in terms of argumentation and presentation in the international environment. We also taught the format of Legislative debate; a format of discussion we were to use on the latter 2 days to steer our discussion regarding the specific policies youth should adopt to deal with problems of various cultures living together. We also started to talk about common problems in our societies. In mixed groups we exchanged best practices how these are or how they should be treated, always bringing the real life examples and experience from our communities into the discussion.

On the second night we exchanged also many things with the city of Amsterdam. The Dutch participants first took us to the concert on Museumsplein and then showed us the true multicultural face of Amsterdam guiding us through the dodgy corners in the opposite direction from the Hostel in the middle of the night. On the third night we hosted a heated debate on whether religious symbols should be shown in public institutions as part of the Project Stranger. The debate was very tight and in the end, it was the team affirming the resolution that won the hearts and minds of the public and thereby the debate.

The next 2 days were devoted to heated discussions on policies. The ultimate goal was to produce a common statement - resolution of the participants attending the European Youth Speak Conference. Additionally each country was to come up with a national action plan that was feasible for the participants to carry out. These national action plans were then presented in the final discussion called Youth-to-Youth Exchange, the highlight event of the daily program. The national delegations fought for the main prize - 200 EUR to help with launch of their project. The Estonian idea of a exchange of students between the Russian and Estonian families (which btw could be surely well commercialized as a next reality show on the Estonian national TV) won the main prize. The closing speech was done by Rogier Elshout, the National Youth Council Representative for European Affairs, who made remarks on the national action plans and advised the young participants how to make the plans even better by adopting more local and participatory approach. It could be best summarized by a quote from his speech “go and talk to the people; ask them what they need and develop the project with them, not for them!”.

The highlight of the evening program was surely the Hyde Park – Speakers’ corner event taking place on the forth night in the Oosterpark. Each of the participants had the chance to be critically evaluated by their peers on their vision of multicultural Europe using the 'format' of speakers' corner – there are no rules apart from time limit! The event was moderated by Bahram Sadeghi and the closing speech was delivered Jelena Jakulj, Policy Officer Access Croatia, who reflected upon the performance and the ideas of the speakers.

The participants’ differences in attitudes and feeling of being strange that was visible at the beginning slowly faded away and was lessened through the discussion and talks through the sessions during the day or in the evening. Hence, mission completed and see more of you next year!

For more photos, click here: http://picasaweb.google.co.uk/marczaleski/EYS?authkey=eDmkIv
http://picasaweb.google.nl/winnie.terra/IDEANL
http://www.flickr.com/photos/20964524@N02/sets/72157604997063419/
thanks Marcin, Winnie and Sergiu!

IDEA Visits the Daegu American Corner

On May 28, IDEA visited the American Corner in Daegu, Korea to conduct a debate training for any interested community members. The American Corner program is an initiative of the US State Department and gives educational outreach and resources in English to people around the world. In addition to the Daegu American Corner, the US Embassy in Korea sponsors one in Busan and one in Gwangju.

Ranging from university-aged to 77 years old, the group was certainly an enthusiastic and eclectic one! In addition to discussing the concept of debate and what sorts of things make for a good debate, each participant crafted a public speech on a topic of their choosing. Each person's initial argument was deconstructed by fellow participants and returned to him/her, which enabled each speaker to respond effectively to criticisms of his/her beliefs.

Topics discussed ranged from President Lee Myung Bak's plan to construct a large canal across Korea to methods of English education to whether pets should be allowed to live with people in apartments to the merits of test-taking. Most people in the group wanted to share their speeches in the supportive and engaged environment of the Daegu American Corner. IDEA looks forward to working with US Embassy education programs in the future!