Monday, August 13, 2007
College Parliamentary Debate Workshop Concludes
The College Parliamentary Debate Workshop concluded on Friday in a happy expression of celebration as the students and faculty members congratulated each other on how the week had gone. In that week there had been eleven small group instructional timeslots in which several different subjects were being taught that students could choose between. There had also been twelve debates that students had participated in.
Just before the closing assembly director Steve Woods had given students an "open" topic for their last debate (this house believes that the glass is half full) and it produced some very entertaining interchanges with the subject mater of the different debates varying widely. One team had argued that the workshop session had been a success, to which the opposition filed some serious disagreements, all while a team from the WDI marketing staff was observing the debate.
Hat winners above: Matt Garver of Tennessee Tech, Marianne Caballero of Universidad Catholica Andres Bello Venezuela, Anna Rawson of Vermont, Jese Swett of Vermont, and Zach Wilkes of Louisiana
Once again, the hats were the crucial event of the closing assembly. They are given to those students who contribute the most to the academic and intellectual atmosphere of the program, and there was easy agreement on the five winners.
The parliamentary program at WDI keeps growing and if this session is any indication, it will continue to do so in the future. A huge thanks must go to the faculty who designed and implemented the program.