2007-09-16
PDI Student Wins Wake Forest National Invitational
Congratulations to two-time Philadelphia Debate Institute alumnus, Alex Koren '06-'07, for winning the Wake Forest Early Bird Invitational! Out of a field of over 130 competitors from around the country, Alex was declared the tournament champion on a 2-1 decision in the final round against Montgomery Bell Academy's (TN) Corey Metzman.
Alex is a junior at the Pennsylvania Leadership Charter School. He attended both the 2006 and 2007 Philadelphia Debate Institutes run by Perspectives Debate, Inc. This spring, he began a debate team at Pennsylvania Leadership and has been an active coach for the novice students since its inception. From this experience he authored an article on "Being a Student Coach" for Perspectives' A Comprehensive Introduction to Lincoln-Douglas Debate. As well, he was the 2007 Voices of Philadelphia Debate Tournament champion and winner of a $5,000 debate scholarship to Drexel University.
In addition to Alex's performance, PDI alumni Jay Garlapati '05-'06 reached the top 16 and Sam Dharia '06 reached the top 32. At just the start of the debate season, everyone at Perspectives is sure that our alumni will continue this trend of excellence.
Alumni Karlyn Gorski '05-'07, Zak Pyzik '07, Evan Burt '06-'07, Karuna Doraiswamy '06, and Glyn Cozart '05-'06 also represented PDI at this tournament.
Congratulations to all of PDI's alumni!
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Perspectives is a Philadelphia-based 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization promoting youth debate education. Students who debate dramatically increase their reading comprehension, critical thinking, and public speaking skills. In the process, debate becomes a forum to foster youth achievement and civic responsibility. Perspectives has worked with over 400 students in 8 states through afterschool, summer, and special events. www.philadebate.org