Baltimore Urban Debate League Receives Prestigious Award from the White House

posted by Amy Knox

April 21, 2007

The Baltimore Urban Debate League was recognized as one of 17 national “Coming Up Taller” organizations.

Pam Spiliadis, BUDL’s executive director and a 2004 Weinberg Fellow, accepted a $10,000 award at a White House ceremony in Washington, D.C., on January 22, 2007.

First Lady Laura Bush, who leads her husband’s Helping America’s Youth Initiative, said at the ceremony that the honored programs all “make extraordinary contributions.”

“Teens find their own voices through Baltimore’s Urban Debate League,” Bush said. “There, underperforming students become eager researchers, articulate speakers and disciplined competitors. Ninety percent of them go on to college. Look for these formidable policy debaters in the courtroom and, someday, at the White House.”

The debate league started in Baltimore in 1999 with 90 students from eight schools. It now works with more than 1,000 students from more than 60 middle and high schools in the city each year to develop communication skills and critical thinking.

Learn more about this story: http://budl.org/news_article?id=308

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