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THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
MONDAY, MARCH 24, 2014
PAGE 3
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Q&A
Kansas debate team qualifies for nationals
TERRI HARVEY news@kansan.com
Addison Schiele, a sophomore from Topeka, is a member of the Kansas debate team, the second team in the country so far that's qualified to head to the national debate competition. This year's competition will take place at the University of Indiana. The Kansan sat down with Schiele and asked him some questions about his experience with debate.
The University Daily Kansan: Take me through the process of preparing for a debate.
Addison Schiele: Generally, either a week or two in advance, you scope out the competition and figure out what the other teams are reading and prepare arguments
against those teams, both on the affirmative and negative. Online there is a case list that everybody puts all the research that they do on it, so they have all their affirmative and negative arguments. I do a lot of the affirmative research for my partner and I; I do research and update the affirmative, see if there are any new articles or new advantages. The week of [the competition], a few days before, you have to do your prep-sheet, you sort the judges based on how you prefer them to judge you. The judges that you want the most go at the top of the list and the judges you want the least go at the bottom and that determines who will judge you in the competition.
UDK: What do you receive if you win the debate?
AS: There's a traveling trophy that goes around to the schools that you get your name put on. I think there are individual trophies; you get a watch that is pretty cool too.
UDK: What helped you make it to the national championship?
AS: I think one of the things that have really helped has been having a solid coaching staff. Dr. Harris, who is the director of the debate program, is an argumentative genius in my opinion and hes able to think about arguments in a unique manner that makes a lot of debate strategic sense. Dr. Bret Bricker is extremely helpful for teaching debate style and techniques.
UDK: When did you start debating and why?
AS: I started debating freshman year in high school to get a speech credit to graduate and I stuck with it and I liked it. It was unexpected to say the least.
UDK: What has prompted you to continue debate?
AS: There's something about being in a debate round that is incomparable to any other life experiences that I've had. It's just a rush of adrenalin and its equivalent to why someone wants to play a sport for the rest of their life. It's a different style of competitiveness that is interesting to me, at least.
UDK: What will you do after
college debate ends to get that rush?
AS: Unfortunately there is no professional debate so it does have to come to an end. My last debate round will probably be very emotional for me and will end in some tears. The way that I will try to fulfill that kind of rush is to keep up with debate, follow the KU debate program. Right now I coach debate at my old high school, and coaching is its own kind of rush, it is just more before the round than anything. [I will probably be] getting an assistant coaching position or something like that while I'm in grad school.
UDK: What do you plan to do after college?
chemical engineering; it's sort of unrelated to debate.
UDK: How do you think your debate skills will help you in this career?
AS: Debate teaches you how to process information and make decisions incredibly quickly. It also exposes you to different kinds of literature bases that you have to research. It helps with school in two ways: one, it forces you to get better at reading and reading comprehension, and then to be able to synthesize the research that you do and analytically think about it and process that information very quickly.
AS: Something to do with
CAMPUS
— Edited by Callan Reilly
University's Peace Corps participation decreases
BRENDAN O'FARRELL news@kansan.com
It was night in The Gambia, a small country in West Africa, and Kansas graduate Lacy Szuwalski was walking home when she noticed a strange man walking in front of her. He kept looking back to make sure she was following him, and when she stopped walking he did, too. She had seen him in town before and he seemed to pop up unexpectedly during her time as a Peace Corps volunteer. Worried, she called ahead to let the guards know about the man.
The man went away, but it's the potential for experiences
like this, or worse, that can scare off prospective volunteers.
"Safety is one the biggest concerns people have when looking at the Peace Corps," Szuwalski said.
"I felt that there was a lot of risk in volunteering in some of the countries..."
KATE NEWMAN Student
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The program, which sends Americans abroad to help
communities in fields ranging from agriculture to education, has seen a steady decline nationally over the last few years. Participation dropped from 9,095 volunteers in 2011 to 7,209 in 2013. At the University, numbers have declined from 47 volunteers in 2010 to 23 in 2013.
Some reasons for this decline include safety concerns, improving job markets, a lack of awareness and increased opportunities to volunteer abroad according to Peace Corps experts.
gram by leading informational events about the organization, like an upcoming Peace Corps Information Session - Addressing Your Fears. This will be held on Tuesday, March 25 from noon to 1 p.m. in the International Room of the Kansas Union.
Kate Newman, a political science major from Kansas City. Mo., considered the program but ultimately decided it wasn't for her.
Szuwalski recently became the University's Peace Corps Representative and is working to recruit students for the pro-
"I felt that there was a lot of risk in volunteering in some of the countries, especially for women, where the respect and
SEE CORPS PAGE 8
CONTRIBUTED PHOTO
University graduate Lacy Szuwalski poses with her host sister Bintu in The Gambia. Szuwalski is the University's Peace Corps Representative and she is currently working on recruiting for the organization.
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