When several of my LSA peers and I created DUDE -- Detroit Urban Debate Education -- to help students in Metro Detroit high schools develop their debate teams and programs, it meshed with my belief that public service isn't only a critical tool in helping our society grow but it's also integral in developing and maintaining relationships with people and things different from what we're familiar with. DUDE gives students the opportunity to improve their public-speaking skills and learn the research skills they they'll need to get along in today's workplace. We're hoping that through this group we'll be able to increase the number of Detroit high-school students pursuing higher education.

Debate was a big part of my life. I was part of the debate team in high school and a member of the U-M team. I've seen that the debate community in the State of Michigan is segregated along racial and class lines. Suburban schools with substantial tax bases are able to provide their students with opportunities to learn argument and research skills, attend local and regional tournaments and travel to compete at the national level. Despite a long history of commitment to debate education, Detroit's urban schools often find difficulty providing instruction, transportation and qualified tournament judging to their students -- and they certainly don't have the means to travel to suburban tournaments outside of Detroit. We hope that by helping schools in Detroit, we can take participating schools to local and national tournaments and integrate urban debate into the Michigan Interscholastic Forensics Association. It's our hope that DUDE will help make debate in Detroit sustainable.

Eventually we hope to host our own urban debate tournament where the schools can compete against each other. Also, we expect that, this year, the schools we support will compete at state tournaments such as the U-M tournament. This past year DUDE gave a long-requested workshop to teachers and coaches who want to start or become involved with programs but are unfamiliar with the formal or technical aspects of policy debate.

This entire experience has helped me become a better student by changing my perspective on the way I learn. I'm more open-minded about topics I was previously uncertain about, and more willing to try harder at things I'm not as good at. I might not be the smartest student in the class but I’m a hard worker, which in my opinion might be even more important than intelligence. I have resources available to me and I've learned to not take them for granted. I've also learned the importance of persistence and determination in teaching as well as learning.