First-Place Debate Team Heads to Germany for March Tournament

On the heels of an overall team first-place finish in January, the Brooklyn College Forensics Speech and Debate Team will head to Berlin in March to vie for the top spot at the 20th Annual International Forensics Association Tournament.

The team chalked up an impressive victory at the Collegiate Forensics Association's Winter Tournament, held at the College of Charleston (South Carolina) in January.

"It was our first team sweepstakes first-place victory since the team's revival," says team president Juliana Rosentsveyg. "The team has been successful before; we just did not win first-place overall. The old team was extremely successful, and our dream is one day to make the current team as good as the one we once had."

The Forensics Speech and Debate Team, which had been dormant for a number of years, was revived chiefly through the efforts of former team member Joseph Awadjie, '07, with the help of other interested students. Since then, the team has participated in competitions in Colorado, Maryland, Missouri, New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Montreal.

Rosentsveyg, a lifelong Brooklynite who majors in biology and health and nutrition, was o ne of the team members whose noteworthy performance in Charleston helped put together the team victory. The list of winners included:

1st Place

• Impromptu: Mubashir Billah
• After Dinner Speaking: Jennifer Gao
• Parliamentary Speaker: Arvind Badhey
• Informative Speaking: Jasmine Patel
• Persuasive: Arvind Badhey

2nd Place

• Parliamentary Team: Mubashir Billah and Arvind Badhey
• Dramatic Duo Interpretation: Juliana Rosentsveyg and Loraine Rosentsveyg
• Impromptu: Arvind Badhey
• Parliamentary Speaker:  Arvind Badhey
• Extemporaneous Speaking: Mubashir Billah

3rd Place

• Prose: Arvind Badhey
• Persuasive Speaking: Juliana Rosentsveyg
• Parliamentary Speaker: Mubashir Billah
• Persuasive Speaking: Jennifer Gao

4th Place

• Dramatic Duo Interpretation: Jasmine Patel and Juliana Rosentsveyg
• Prose Interpretation: Loraine Rosentsveyg
• Pentatholon: Juliana Rosentsveyg

6th Place

• Poetry Interpretation: Vivian Xie
   

The journey to Berlin to participate in the March 13-20 tournament will be the team's first overseas trip. Rosentsveyg says seven team members, likely to include herself, her sister Loraine, Billah, Patel, Gao, Badhey and one other, will make the trip. The team will debate other U.S. teams. Eight members will then take part in the National Championships scheduled for Athens, Ohio, in April.

"Participating in forensic debates teaches you the art of public speaking as well as other qualities, such as leadership," says Staten Island native Jasmine Patel, a senior biology and economics major who has been with the team since her freshman year and now serves as its treasurer. "It's good preparation for all sorts of professions."

Adds Rosentsveyg, who has been a member since her sophomore year: "It develops self-confidence. It's very helpful."