Over Spring Break in April, Cardozo’s Debate Team held a competition at Cardozo. The club has improved compared to the past years, with this being the first competition that they won as a team.
Mr. Stiklickas, social studies teacher and debate team advisor, helps the students by providing them with the tools to use to help make their reasoning stronger.
“The most important part of a competition is for me, it’s the learning aspect for the students,” Stiklickas said. “There is a lot to learn in losing and winning. All of the students work really hard, sometimes it reflects when they win or don’t win.”
With the students having to go through a competition, they have a lot of anticipation with having to wait for their turn. The competitions last for a very long time. They start around 8 a.m. and don’t end until 5 p.m.—plus, they are on a Saturday.
Stiklickas said his favorite part of the competition was the award ceremony because of hearing the kids’ names being called and all the excitement of it.
Unfortunately, he revealed, “A lot of the other schools get a lot more funding than we do, they have more prep time and more advisors with the club. So I would really love to see the program grow.”
“Mr. Georgatos works very hard to give us funding which is nice,” Stiklickas added.
This year they have achieved a lot. How did they get it done? “It was the leadership,” the club advisor shared.
“Elean Chen took over this year and I think she was a bit more organized this year than the past board members. She came out very organized and exactly what she wanted to do with each section.”
“She was able to keep things very well-regulated. She came up with many different exercises for her fellow classmates to do,” Stiklickas explained.
Mr. Stiklickas wants students who are not on the debate team to know, “It’s a lot of work and preparation. It’s an academic club so there is a lot of writing and researching but the payout is that when you win, the gratification.”
“Any student that wins becomes very addicted and wants to come right back,” he said.
Stiklickas shared that he is proud of his students and what they have achieved. If you’re interested in joining Dozo Debate, check out their Instagram @dozodebate.