Members of the Pegasus School Debating Society

2020 NSDA Prize of Champion, Third Runner-up, Best Debater in Qingdao Division

2020 NSDA Prize of runner-up and best debater in Jinan Division

2021 NSDA Prize of Online National Third Runner-up

2021 NSDA Prize of Champion and best debater in Jinan Division

2021 NSDA Prize of champion, third place, best debater in Qingdao Division

 

 

01 Founded only for one year

Honor Winning of the competition in too many ways to count

 

This is the 19th issue of the column. We invited the members of Qingdao Pegasus School Debate Club to conduct interviews. They were formed by students from all grades of Pegasus School. Under the leadership of the president Sarah, one year’s establishment has led them to championship, third place, and best debater of the NSDA debate in Qingdao and Jinan division for two consecutive seasons. In addition, they also competed with the best debaters across the country and achieved as well as before and it is good achievement for them with the third place. What's more commendable is that most of their members received awards at the first time they were exposed to debate and participated in debate competitions. The ability to achieve such impressive results also proved their rapid leaps in overall strength.

 

Except for the president Sarah who started to participate in the debate competition in June,  2020, many members of the Debate Club only had their first debate competition in December last year. So far they have participated in only 2-3 competitions, regardless of  whether they have achieved honor or not, from their position, participating in debate competitions is to challenge themselves bravely. Because of the debate, some students have overcome the timidity in public speech; some students have improved their language expression skills; some students have stimulated their own continuous upward motivation by confronting the outstanding debaters of Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou; some students have improved reading ability by effort on consulting.

 

 

 

02 Debating Club in the three "big exams"

Rapid growth

 

From its founding to today, the Debating Society has faced the test of three competitions. The first time was the NSDA offline tournament held in Qingdao in December 2020. Almost all members of the club signed up to participate in this tournament. However, they were also the first time to participate in a contest related to debate. Participating for the purpose of experience, but the result was unexpected. When the results were announced, all of their participants not only won the promotion, but also won almost all the awards such as the champion, third place, and best debater. This The members of the society were very surprised and gained a lot of confidence.

 

President Sarah's plan is to lead members to participate in at least one game every season. With the purpose of training soldiers, they participated in the National Debate Online tournament held by the NSDA in March this year. This is a test of no small amount for the fledglings, and it is also a very special tournament. They competed on the same stage with the strongest debaters from all over the country and felt the unprecedented difficulty. Although the final result was only a third place, for all of them, the experience of this competition showed them the gap. I also clearly realized that there is still a lot of room for improvement, which also clarified the direction for them to work hard in the future.

 

Then in the Qingdao NSDA Debate Offline Tournament held in QingdaoPegasus School in May, after the experience of the last competition and subsequent preparations, they successfully staged the "Return of the King" in this competition, and they once again brought Qingdao to Qingdao. The championship, third runner-up, and outstanding debater of the competition area were all won, leaving the reputation of Qingdao's most "debating" high school students at Pegasus again.

 

 

 

03 Founded by President Sarah

The original intention of the Debating Club

 

For the president Sarah, the original intention of creating the debate club was because of her interest in debate. With the graduation of the school’s senior classmates, the school’s debate club was in a state of absence of leadership, so she was determined to bring the debate club back to life. So Sarah founded the school’s debate club in September 2020. Although she did not have ideas at the beginning, in the past year, as members of the debate club continue to win awards, the current debate club not only owns more than 30 members, and they are officially certified by NSDA, which makes Sarah excited: "I think since we started the debate, I think everyone can feel it, and the English in Beijing and Shanghai is closer to the native language level. There is still a certain gap between the groups, but I think that because of the debate, each of our members has made very obvious progress."

 

 

 

04 School support

& Planning for community development

 

For a "young" team, the Debating Club has received strong support from the school in its creation and the competition. The teacher not only helped the students analyze the debate, but during the competition, the school's extracurricular activities instructor Yi also follow the full process. The help and recognition of the team has become a solid basis for everyone, and it has also contributed to the rapid development of the community.

 

Regarding future plans, members all hope to achieve breakthroughs with their partners to achieve better results, and they also hope that they will continue to improve their strengths in reading, English expression, and logical thinking.

 

For team captain Sarah, she hopes to lead the students who join the club to participate in at least one debate competition. She believes that being unrewarded does not mean the level of the players. Winning the prize still requires a certain amount of luck. Therefore, don’t make the failure trap you., because wining is secondary, the important thing is to grow in events.