Fantastic Fellows Support MNUDL Through Summer Service
Former Summer Fellow Marshall Steele and teammate Cayden Mayer, current summer fellow, uplift our programming through service. | Photo Credit: Marina Que
MNUDL had a record number of summer fellows this year!
Kate Nozal, Macalester College student and Highland Park debate coach, was one of 12 students chosen for the service-centered Chuck Green Fellowship. She chose to support MNUDL! As a fellow, she worked on expansive projects related to data analysis and volunteer outreach.
Our White & Case Fellows, who were recruited through National Association for Urban Debate Leagues, are all MNUDL alums. They spent the summer researching debate topics for our spring semester programs, identifying the best evidence for the affirmative and negative cases and adjusting its reading level to meet student needs.
Cayden Mayer, our own graduate who currently studies at Macalester College, helped develop evidence and internal resources for our Financial Literacy Leadership Debates program (where they once competed!) and other debate curriculum.
David Rivera, Boston Debate League alum who currently studies at Suffolk University, created evidence for our Debate En Español program. David found evidence from Spanish language publications about Amazon Rainforest conservation policies.
Sophie Bambara is a Houston Urban Debate League alum who currently studies at Pomona College. She was selected to assist us in developing our East African Debate program and helped develop evidence curriculum examining the impact of integrated or culturally-specific education spaces.
Charlize Ongeri served at Summer Speech & Debate Camp through the MN Alliance With Youth Summer Fellows Program. As an undergraduate at St. Olaf College studying social work, she used her knowledge to support our middle and high school students as they learned speech and debate skills.
Reflecting on her experience this summer Sophie says,
“The past weeks spent working with the MNUDL has been rewarding. At first, I was skeptical that I would be able to have a finished product (the debate packet) by the end of the internship period. But with the help of Jake and Melekh, doing the research, edits, and contacting education professionals felt completely doable. The trainings and one-on-one meetings were especially helpful to me. I always felt supported and knew that if I had questions, they would be answered with no judgement. All in all, I had a great time working with the MNUDL team!”
Thank you to each and every one of our fellows for sharing their time with us this summer! You’ve helped set our debaters up for success in the upcoming season.
