Georgetown University named 7th Annual Qatar University Debate League Champions

The Georgetown University in Qatar (GU-Q) student debate team was recently announced winner of the 7th annual Qatar University Debate League Championships in Doha at a two day tournament that marks the end of the 2013-2014 debate year in Qatar, and in which the best teams from universities compete. The team was also named overall champion for the Qatar Foundation’s Qatar Debate league, which is made up of three tournaments over the year.

Georgetown students Arwa El Sanosi & Sarim Zia made up the two person debate team that won the final round of the tournament, after successfully debating the assigned opposition side for the motion: “This House Believes That Palestinians Should Not Accept Citizenship from Arab States.”

Students Yoonsuk Choi, Fahad Al Khater, Razan Al-Humaidi and Sheba George were among others who participated in the two day tournament. GU-Q students who received high individual speaker rankings include Sarim Zia (2nd place), Arwa Elsanosi (3rd place), and Fahad Al Khater (10th place).Yoonsuk Choi won for Best Speaker Overall and Sheba George won 10th place Best Speaker in the league for the year.

The GU-Q debate team officially competed in Qatar four times this year; three times in the League, and one time in an open tournament with high school students. They also organized weekly meetings where they invited debaters from other universities for in-house debate practice.

Furthermore, the winning team worked on their oratory skills in different international settings over the past few years, such as through competing at the World Universities Debating Championship held in Germany and the Philippines, and taking part in a debate training camp abroad.

“The Georgetown Debate team decided to focus their summer 2013 training on honing their debating skills by attending the North America Debate Academy at the University of Vermont. This team has really worked together to train new students and also build on their own debate experience,” said Senior Student Development Officer Sara Berhie, who also acts as the Debate Club advisor.

Reflecting on the impact of her university education on the skills required for debate, Arwa El Sanosi, a senior majoring in International Politics, said: “A strong debater is someone who can give an argument, analyze it and give an example on the analysis. Our classes at Georgetown teach us how to do all three. But also, debate has a specific structure that helps us write more concise papers, and has a public speaking component that works exceptionally well in school presentations, because we know what it takes to capture people’s attention and how to sound coherent. So the benefits work both ways.”

Qatar Debate Centre, a member of Qatar Foundation was established in 2008 and is the national debating organization for Qatar. To provide and promote educational debating activities at the local, regional and international levels for high-school and university students in Qatar, and also to educate young people about communications and critical thinking.