Irreplaceable Experience for Being a Debate Coach in Taiwan
Debate provides a unique educational opportunity that emboldens students to speak up for themselves and others. In 2018, the Executive Yuan set the goal for the island to be bilingual by 2030. The desire to create a populace that can fluently communicate in English and Mandarin is quite ambitious. To aid the island reach this goal, a Fulbright grant was created to bring debate coaches from the United States to Taiwan to train high school teachers and students how to compete in US style debate. This grant is the first of its kind and I am very honored to be involved. As a debate coach and lecturer, I have introduced thousands of students and many adults to the benefits of debate. I believe that the skills it teaches are useful for all individuals at all stages of life. I was extremely excited when I learned that I would be working with students and teachers all over the island of Taiwan and not just one class. In a semester at my university I work with 26 students at a time, so getting to work with almost 100 students I knew that I was going to be in for a unique challenge.
