More alumni visit the STJDS

Korey Pace came to visit recently, recruiting bright students to enter management positions at Macy's. Korey is a very active and very supportive debate society alumn. After spending the day recruiting for Macy's he dropped by the Rhetoric department table at the Major's Fair as well as a Public Speaking class to share his insights on how St. John's debate and his rhetoric degree have shaped his professional life. He then attended the debate practice and gave a criticism of the performances of the novice debaters. We can't wait for him to come back already!

Dr. Llano, Korey, and Department Chair Dr. Hostetler at the Major's Fair. 

You too can visit the Debate Society anytime you wish. Just let us know when you are planning to come. The students love an audience for debate practices, and your insights will help them improve their argumentation skills.

More Debate Alums visit our Tuesday Practice

George Fitzpatrick and Chris Joyce stopped by the Debate Dojo Tuesday night to meet some of the new members of the team. Chris is a graduate student here at St. John's, so he had to run off to class, while George, who works in the financial sector in Wall Street, chose to stay and offer a critique of the practice debate, which was about the recent New York City ban on large sized sodas.

If you are in the area and would like to stop by to visit the current debate team, don't hesitate! Our meetings are Tuesday and Thursday nights at 7PM in room 203 of St John Hall (we call it the Debate Dojo). If you would like more information, email the director of debate, Steve Llano.

How Do We Prepare New Debaters?

St. John's University (New York) (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Every semester, the St. John's University Debate Society attracts a wide variety of students from a number of different segments of the University. Preparing them all for tournaments is difficult, especially when you realize how the STJDS operates.

We have little to no requirements for meeting attendance - we find that the more flexible we are, the more students want to participate and the more frequently they come to meetings when they are able.

We also have a number of new students showing up at different points in the semester here and there. They come whenever they see one of our fliers or whenever they hear about us on campus.

So teaching everyone about debating is not something that we can just do once and be done with it. It's something we have to do over and over again -which is fine, since we love debate and love talking about debate.

The arrival of inexpensive digital video is something we are trying to take advantage of at the Debate Society. We have filmed a number of student led training sessions (although Dr. Llano does fill in on one) in order to have a collection of videos ready for those students who want a refresher, or who would rather study the concepts of debate on their own, in their dorm, or on their smartphone during their commute through Queens.

Here is a link to our collection of training videos. Please watch them! You will be very proud of what our current students are up to.