A Summer of Debate

This July the Milestone Debating Society organised a Summer Debate Camp and the national ‘try-outs’ at our Institute, before going to the Czech Republic to attend the Heart of Europe Debating Competition where they achieved outstanding results.

The main goal of the Summer Debate Camp programme, which took place at the Milestone Institute between the 3rd and 7th of July, was to introduce debating to new Milestone students and to acquire the fundamental rhetorical skills needed to compete at a high level. In the first three days the participants received numerous lessons from professional coaches from Canada and the Czech Republic. In addition, students were given the opportunity to test their powers of persuasion in the afternoon of each day through organised debates against one another.

The last day of the tournament served as a prominent day in the history of debating in Hungary. The organisers arranged their very first ‘try-out’ in order to gather together the best applicants for the National Team. Students were enrolled into separate teams to challenge each other with the sole goal of gaining enough speaker points to enter the National Team.

Soon after the preparatory summer debate sessions, a delegation of Milestoners headed to the Czech Republic on the 13th of July 2017 to attend the Heart of Europe Debating Tournament in Olomouc. This year the Debating Society sent four teams, making the single largest delegation of the tournament. This, in itself, was great progress in terms of spreading the word of The Laikas abroad.

Our debaters regarded this summer term as a crucial period in their practical preparation as the whole year of training is judged by their performance in such international competitions. Additionally, during these occasions the debaters can not only spend their summertime together, building their community, but also, have the opportunity to test themselves and compete against exceptional students from all over the world. This is the best way to improve and enjoy the process of improvement.

The Milestone Debating Society is proud to announce, that their fundamental values and latest practices proved to be overwhelmingly successful, since this has been the most rewarding journey that the Society has ever had. Last year it was the first time that a Milestone team would break – that is to say entering the top 16 – on this occasion, there were 3 breaker teams!

The greatest collective achievement probably was that the team Milestone Jefferson was awarded the best EFL (English-as-a-Foreign-Language) team of the tournament. In the end, 2 teams managed to reach the quarterfinals, making a breakthrough in the history of world schools debating within Milestone.

In the individual awards, Bálint Szőllősi was awarded the best EFL speaker award and Márk Priám gained the title of the 3rd best EFL speaker.