Building the next generation of debaters

Zhang is a third-year HBA student at the University of Toronto, specializing in political science with a second major in public policy, and is part of the Hart House Debating Clubs leadership team. He joins Upper School math teacher Josh Rapps, English teacher Heshina Cooke and Tayyabah Ahmed, science faculty chair, in overseeing the team for the 2024–25 school year. 

Says Rapps, “I’m excited to have Brandon on board. He brings extensive experience in debate and is well-connected within the debate community. His ability to provide detailed and insightful feedback to our students is incredibly valuable to the club!”

UCC News caught up with Zhang to hear about his early impressions of debating at the school and where he hopes it goes from here.

It’s going well. We recently had our first meeting, and it was nice to see a lot more students than I expected. All students in the Upper School are welcome.

First, I help run the practices, which are held every Monday and Thursday. The students come in and debate a topic set by the student executive or the coaches. I’ll write down my general feedback, and suggest how they might want to change certain things about how they speak. 

And then I have a supervisory role that also applies to tournaments. We’re planning to go to Montreal at the end of October for a tournament hosted by McGill University.

Lastly, since I’ve recently participated in debating, I’ll oversee registration for external tournaments that UCC may not have traditionally participated in.  

They’re exceptional. UCC’s program has a long history, and it shows — with respect not only to the quality of the experienced debaters. Yesterday in practice, we had a new debater who gave a speech that I would consider very much above average. And that’s largely because of the quality of education he’s received. It’s really nice to see new debaters with all that promise.  

Success is always a goal, but so is ensuring that it’s a positive environment. I’m still learning how the program functions, so I’m going to work in this transitional period and take some time before I would recommend any changes. This year I’m going to try to help build up a new generation of debaters. I would love to see the students make the Nationals, and ultimately qualify for the Oxford Schools’ Debating Competition in the U.K. and represent not only the school, but Canada as a whole. That would be amazing.