Meet the Founders
Lilly Deng and Alexander McCobin
Co-Founders & Directors
There are many stories and memories that former debaters share of their high school debate experience. Universally, these stories recall the glory of competition, the thrill of arguing, and the joy of learning.
We hope that our stories will open a window into learning more about debate and how it changes lives.
Lilly's Story
Without any doubt, debate has been the most significant event in my young life. It gave me the critical thinking and presentation skills that have helped me on everything from writing essays for scholarship contests to interviewing for investment banks; it exposed me to the pressing social conflicts of our time which has fueled my interest in public service and advocacy; and it was my first introduction to a peer group that not only valued education and intellectually discovery, but epitomized the very process of it. Through debate, I met friends who later became Intel Science Fair Finalists, Presidential Scholars, and Girls and Boys Nation Senators, some of the highest awards given to high school students in our country.
Debate gave me myriad opportunities to meet talented people and learn more. Growing up, however, this was a world far different from my own. My parents were Chinese immigrants and who came to this country like most do: very low on financial resources, but very high on hope and determination. When we lived in Colorado, every student in my school was eligible for free lunch, and the school offered English-language classes because nearly all parents were low-income, illiterate immigrants. All students were automatically enrolled in afterschool clubs to help at-risk youth, which we were considered, even though we were only in first and second grade. When we lived in Delaware, my classmates came from working families, and the school decided not to celebrate holidays like Halloween for fear that most families could not afford even home-made costumes.
During my childhood and high school years, things were difficult because of family issues at home. From age nine on, my mother raised me without a job, the requisite training to find a job, or any tangible access to opportunity. In high school, I worked at McDonald's for four years and earned extra income for my family.
I bring this up because this is how debate makes a difference. Debate was something to look forward to. It was a way out. By going to tournaments, often held at college campuses, this was the way that I learned the social knowledge that eludes most students from where I'm from. Like many others, my debate coach was a mentor, teacher, and at times, a much-needed parentÐsomeone who could guide me through the difficult terrain of high school and keep my sights on higher education. On an academic level, I read literally a million pages of academic texts and journals on topics from the efficacy of human rights interventions to academic freedom in high schools. If you were a drive-through customer at the McDonald's where I worked, you inevitably saw me flipping through pages of topic briefings between taking orders: highlighting, taking notes, and outlining arguments as I did so.
Through my life, I've been lucky to be the beneficiary of dozens of programs and activities. At some point or another, I've been involved in soccer, student council, newspaper, track and field, choir, orchestra, and service clubs. I've gone to great business, entrepreneurship, and leadership programs.
But there is nothing more significant than debate. I think that debate can be a great tool to empower youth. Debate coaches are the mentors that young people need. Debate tournaments are the peer environment that young people need. And debate awards are the validation of hard work and effort that young people need. Debate solves problems on both side of the college access equation. It first gives students the skills and development of a peer group that values an enrichment education. At the same time, it makes students attractive for the top colleges that have generous financial aid, or enables students to obtain merit scholarships based on their participation in debate.
There are many influences in a young person's life. Debate was that positive influence in mine.
Alexander's Story
When I joined the debate team during my freshman year of high school, I had no idea of what to expect. All I knew was that I enjoyed arguing and debate provided a forum for me to express my views on a range of contentious issues. When I went into my first debate round, I'll be honest: I wasn't nervous. I was excited. If anything, I had too much to say. After I finished my first round, I realized that debate was the ideal activity for me. The give and take of ideas, the competition of logical argumentation, the discussion of meaningful social dilemmas with other students all amounted to the most exhilarating activity I had ever participated in.
During the next four years of high school, my love for debate only grew. At the end of my freshman year, I qualified to the state competition, the first from my school to do so in so long that no one knew who did so before me. It wasn't long before I came to dedicate more time to preparing for debate than I studied for school. I would spend hours in the local college library reading philosophical texts, on the computer searching the internet for empirical studies to support my arguments and at my desk writing cases for the upcoming competition. The more I practiced, the more my efforts were rewarded. I qualified to the National Forensics League National Tournament as a sophomore, the National Catholic Forensics League Grand National Tournament as a junior and the Tournament of Champions in my junior and senior years. By my senior year, I was spending every other weekend competing at a debate tournament at both the local and national levels and being invited to competitions across the country.
But becoming so involved in debate was far from easy. My school's speech and debate program was small and in constant flux. In my 4 years of high school, we had 4 different faculty sponsors. Most of the time I was the only active debater on the team and took on coaching responsibilities my junior and senior year to attempt to build a Lincoln-Douglas debate program. Because my team was small, it did not travel to the national level tournaments that I was ready to compete at, so I had to travel alone or with other schools just to have the opportunity to compete. Sometimes I was not even allowed to use my school's name at competitions for liability reasons. Unlike other debaters who had well-established teams, dedicated coaches or financial support, I had to coach myself, register for tournaments on my own and find some way to pay the high fees of competition. I came from a lower middle-class background. We were not impoverished, but neither did we have money to throw around. Luckily, my family knew how much debate meant to me and supported my travel to tournaments hoping that my success in debate would be my ticket to college.
I attribute most every success in my life to my participation in high school debate. In particular, when I applied to the University of Pennsylvania, I did so with the knowledge that no one from my public high school had gone to an Ivy League school in at least 4 years, possibly longer. The only thing I could think of to illustrate why I deserved to attend such a university was my involvement in debate. And when I was admitted, I knew that was the reason.
Perhaps the most significant impact debate has had on my life, though, is to define the subsequent course of my life. My study of philosophy and economics is the result of a desire to gain a deeper understanding of the principles I encountered through debate. No matter what I do when I graduate, debate has instilled a desire to make a significant difference in the world. Debate introduced me to the world of critical inquiry and concern for social justice such that I recognize one cannot separate the dual concepts of theory and action; only by understanding the justification for action can one properly take action.
When I ended my high school debate career, I knew I wanted to give back to the activity that had given me so much. To that end I judged at local tournaments, coached debaters to national competitions and became director of Penn's Liberty Bell Classic Tournament. But no matter what I did, I felt as though I wasn't doing enough. My motivation for co-founding Perspectives was to hopefully give back as much to debate as the activity gave to me. But considering how much debate gave me, I am unsure if that will ever be possible.
Our Story
During the summer of 2002, we attended that National Debate Forum (NDF) in Boston, Massachusetts, a summer debate camp where we met and quickly became friends. It was the experience of our lives. For two weeks, we were exposed to advanced philosophy, and quickly learned Kant, Rawls, Nozick, Hegel, Hayek, and other great philosophers; we gained a thorough education in the American system of law, Constitutionalism, and education; and we met so many other smart and talented students who have remained friends for life. We were exposed to ideas and experiences that we had never known existed. It was both the most intense and most rewarding two weeks of our lives, and we loved every minute of it.
We had debated before and we were positive that debate would play a significant part of our high school lives. But our summer camp experience transformed that ambition and gave us a framework where we could truly succeed. Compared to our pre-camp experience, we knew so much more, thought at a much deeper level, and we had a peer group that challenged us to learn more, read more, and do more. It is accurate to say that our 2002 experience at NDF shaped our futures in both debate and life.
The importance of debate towards our successes in high school and admission to top tier universities cannot be overstated. However, in our home state of Pennsylvania, particularly the greater Philadelphia area we debated in, we saw that most students could not make the financial sacrifices we did in order to attend a summer program. NDF and other great summer programs cost nearly $2,000 to attend (it was less when we were students), and most debate camps were thousands of miles away from Pennsylvania.
We wanted to change that. We wanted to show high school students what debate could be: a highly intellectual and eye-opening experience that would literally change students' lives. We wanted to teach students advanced philosophy, sharpen their skills, and provide a fun and meaningful academic experience for all students in the area.
In 2005, our program was successful, but we couldn't reach a wider audience because of the simple matter that debate teams were slowly deteriorating in Pennsylvania. There were strong debate programs in New Jersey, New York, and Massachusetts, and so we had far more students apply to our program from out-of-state than in-state. While we are supportive of these schools and the students from these areas who want to become more involved in debate, our primary purpose was to develop the debate community in the greater Philadelphia region.
We love Pennsylvania and we love Philadelphia, and we wanted to make debate programs possible and integrate new schools into existing debate leagues, and in particular, reach out to students who have traditionally not participated in debate.
You'll find information on our efforts in these other pages, but we started with a very simple goal: provide a quality summer debate institute that would make an educational and personal difference in the lives of young people from our local area. The expansion of our efforts from such modest intentions is the result of our whole-hearted belief in the power of debate education. Students become more active citizens from learning about civic issues and participation, students are more likely to go onto college because of the peer group they gain; schools are improved through enrichment activities that provide open-ended learning environment. In the process of debate, many other social goals are fulfilled but the emphasis is clearly always debate education.
Debate changed our lives, and thanks to Perspectives, it will change many others.