Calcutta Debating Circle in association CLC presents Debating Excellence 2024
NSHM Centre for Language and Communication, Kolkata organised a Debating workshop and competition in association with the Calcutta Debating Circle on 29th June, 2024.
Over 130 students of NSHM participated in this workshop, where ten mentors from various prominent and renowned universities like Cambridge, Yale, Harvard, and the London School of Economics trained these students.
Mr. Pradeep Gooptu, CDC Trustee, interacted with the participants, explaining the rules and regulations of debate and he further guided them saying, “Listening is the most important part of debate for clarity of thoughts to counter the opponent later.”
Jordan Anderson, winner of 21 UK and International debating competitions and a well-known coach along with Heather Robinson, with over ten years of competing and coaching experience, addressed the audience in the beginning to explain the nitty-gritties of debate. While Anderson explained the ways of rebuttal and knowing the importance of the time limit, Robinson presented a demonstration to make it comprehensible to the participants. This interesting and interactive session encouraged the participants to not only recognise the key points but also get involved in the process.
Mr. Cecil Antony, Chief Mentor of NSHM Knowledge Campus warmly welcomed all the guests and participants and wished for such endeavours to continue happening in the future.
After this session, participants were divided into eight groups with a mentor each, to train the group of 15-20 students. Mentors included well-known debaters and coaches like Molly Callaghan, Elias Silver, Arjun Gunalan, Martha Lucas, Nir Amir, Joe Fennel and Mihika Chechi. These breakout sessions commenced with very basic level debate topics to more advanced ones so that the students could learn with the help of hands-on exercises. The mentors focused on their language usage, content, confidence, body language and vibrancy to make their final selection.
Dr. Soujanya Pudi, Head of the Centre for Language and Communication expressed, “We look at how we could help the students to improve their public speaking skills.”
The selected students qualified for the last round of inhouse debate and among them Mr. Soumyapriya Chatterjee, a BBA Sports Management second-year student, who was selected for the final debate to represent NSHM Knowledge Campus, Kolkata.
