Georgetown University SFSQ Wins the First Qatar Universities Debating League Tournament

The first of the monthly Qatar Universities Debate League (QUDL) tournaments was recently held at the College of the North Atlantic in Qatar. Students from seven universities debated for the win and Georgetown University SFS-Q’s Debate Club members were able to carry it home. The School of Foreign Service in Qatar (SFS-Q) students earned Georgetown the first place in the tournament with 19 points. Carnegie Mellon University in Qatar (CMU-Q) followed at 17 points and the Weill Cornell Medical School in Qatar (WCMC-Q) at 16.

Arwa Elsanosi Mohamed, the president of the Georgetown Debate Club and a seasoned debater in her third-year at SFS-Q, expressed her appreciation of the tournament’s well-organized structure and relevant and interesting motions. “It was great to see fellow debaters again,” she said, “we were very excited and eager to reconnect and catch up on the events of last year”.

Organized by Qatar Debate, the QUDL provides university students the opportunity to develop their debating skills and practice their passion for debating in a friendly, educational and professional environment. In addition to participation in debates, Qatar Debate offers the opportunity for students to train for judging.

Aya El Wadia, Vice President of Georgetown’s Debate Club, was invited as a judge for this tournament. “It was both an interesting and challenging experience,” she says “it was interesting because the role is very liberating and empowering; I observed and assessed instead of engaging in the unswerving heat of the debate. It was challenging because it was a new perspective and I had to detach from my opinions and judge objectively. Overall, it was an extremely rewarding experience and, after this training, I would love to take on the role of judging again.”

From motions that range from “THW (This House Would) form a coalition of the willing to intervene in Syria with or without the approval of the United Nations” to “THW make it mandatory for working spouses to pay a salary to the homemaker”, the debates touch on contemporary social, political and economic issues, and are a fantastic means of staying connected to current news and trends. “Debating helps me stay up to date with everything that is happening around the world and connect with my peers regarding the various modern-day issues we face” Arwa says enthusiastically, “I’ve been debating for 5 years, and I absolutely love it”.