SPEAK Founder Teaches Debate in China

This past week, SPEAK founder Jessica Bullock had the opportunity to attend the 4th Annual Beihang Debate Academy as an instructor. She had a blast joining the incredibly talented band of international debate trainers gathered to host the annual debate championship at Beihang University in Beijing, China. Bullock led sessions on the fundamentals of public speaking, argumentation, and a comparison of international education systems and used SPEAK's curriculum materials to help support the training sessions. Additionally, Bullock offered an information session for teachers planning to start their own debate programs. SPEAK's curriculum has now been provided free-of charge to instructors in China and Italy, and we cannot wait to see how the debate network grows! We're very grateful for the opportunity to work with and learn from trainers from Beihang Zip, and sophisticated debate programs around the world.

The Academy itself hosted over 140 debaters for the tournament, the majority of debaters being female, and with a wonderfully diverse teaching staff consisting of trainers from all around the world. The program was initially founded by the late Prof. Alfred "Tuna" Snider and Guohong Xu of Beihang University. This year, we are really lucky to be welcome alongside giants like Bojana Skrt, Jernej Podgornik, John Sadek, Jonathan Borock, and Gina Iberra-Shea.