Engage 1000 Bulgarian students in public speaking

A new semester has come and gone and the BEST community is stronger and bigger than ever (well, since the pandemic started).

Thanks to all of your support, our second Summer Slam showcase was as successful as last year and we managed to reach our goal of $7000. These funds ensured that we continue to run our management team and student leader training seminars in person in order to establish a strong team spirit that carries over throughout the entire academic year.

In September we also held our annual pre-tournament season coach training. The training, which gathered 41 total coaches, marks the first multi-day training event for coaches in the Foundation’s history. Due to the largess of Fulbright Bulgaria, whose sponsorship allowed the training to expand, coaches were able to engage in in-depth conversations about competition categories, piece selection, and the fundamentals of leading a successful BEST team. This year’s team coaches include experienced Bulgarian teachers who are returning coaches, new Fulbright American English teachers, as well as Bulgarian high school students. During the training, coaches were treated to live performances by former and current BEST competitors in the Duo, Prose, and Poetry categories. In addition to student performances, the event also featured prominent guest speakers including AUBG professor Dr. Olga Nikolova, whose workshop on Poetry Interpretation gave coaches hands-on opportunities to analyze and perform poems, and even compete in a mini competition themselves. After winning the challenge, Dimitrovgrad coach Malique J. explained how she used the exercise as an opportunity to empathize with her students: 

“I never thought I was going to do poetry this weekend as it’s always been something I would watch other people do rather than partake in myself. But then I realized something: I tell my students every day that I would rather them create and partake . . . rather than just watch someone else on a screen. I needed to follow my own example.” ––Malique, Dimitrovgrad

After student leaders and coaches were prepared on how to recruit, manage and train a speech and debate team, the fall season tournaments commenced with the Fall West Regional held on November 12-14 and Fall East from Nov 26-28, both online to ensure everyone’s safety as the Bulgarian school and health system is not yet ready for large in-person events. 

Nearly 180 high school students participated in the Fall West Regional and we noticed an increase in student participation in the debate category which can be linked to our summer camp and more extensive coach training. The opening ceremony was held on Zoom with guest speakers from the U.S. Embassy, Fulbright Commission as well as student leaders addressing the entire community. We also held social activities for students and volunteer judges so they get to meet and mingle before the competition officially started on Saturday. In terms of satisfaction rate, 88% of student participants and 90% of volunteer judges rated the event as successful. Also, 77% of students indicated that preparing for the tournament empowered them to make a positive change about something they are passionate about. 

Volunteer judge Miko from Blagoevgrad said: “It has been 10 years since I judged or debated and it was such a pleasure to participate and feel the debating buzz again- congrats to all competitors and keep at it”. 

The Fall East regional tournament which took place on Nov 26-28 hosted 156 student competitors and 55 volunteer judges. There was a noticeable increase in participation in both Debate and duo categories with many new teams from schools who had not participated in debate before. During our opening ceremony, BEST alumna Albina gave an inspirational speech about how BEST impacted her life : “ “Being a part of BEST’s competitions helped me gain confidence and improved my presentation skills immensely. Those, in turn, have become extremely useful for the success of my business venture.” 

Our student leader coordinator also shared some awesome posters created by Student Leaders and their teams to show their team spirit and excitement for the tournaments. 

In terms of satisfaction rate, 82% of student participants and 89% of volunteer judges rated the event as successful. Also, 74% of students indicated that preparing for the tournament empowered them to make a positive change about something they are passionate about.  We are happy to share with you the below tournament highlight video.

As we close the first semester, we held a Q&A session with our local coaches, and also for the first time held a special training session for international teachers/coaches related to our Balkan Voices international oratory tournament which will be held in March. 

We thank you again for all your support and wish you a safe and warm holiday season!

Links:

• Tournament Recap Video
• Summer Slam 2021 Video
• Annual Report

From August 1 through August 7 BEST Foundation hosted its first ever Summer Camp. The Camp, aimed at developing participant’s critical thinking and public speaking skills, took place at the Bulgarian Red Cross’s National Training Center in Lozen and gathered 31 participants from all over Bulgaria, a third of which never having participated in a BEST competition. 

Camp Director Dr. Timothy Yazco held daily lectures which taught participants how to properly organise and articulate their thoughts, as well as how to defend their point of view. On each of the days we also had guest lecturers who talked about various topics related to public speaking, such as communication theory, non-verbal communication and improvisation.

„BEST’s camp was the perfect combination of fun and learning. Although I have competed in debates and original oratory before, my skills and knowledge of them have improved significantly. In addition to learning, our mentors also offered us various activities that helped us relax and brought us closer together. An unforgettable experience!”
- Ekaterina Valeva, Foreign Language School, Plovdiv 

After the morning theoretical lessons, the participants had the opportunity to apply what they learned in afternoon debate exercises, and then to relax with all kinds of sports activities. On Friday the participants were divided into teams and debated against each other. This time the debates took place one after another as the other teams evaluated their peers' skills. The Camp concluded in the evening after with an official closing ceremony where we gave out awards for best team, best speaker, most improved participant, as well as most witty participant.

“The camp was a surreal experience - a memory that I will keep and cherish forever. It allowed me to surround myself with amazing people who helped me to improve not only as a speaker, but also as an individual.”
- Kadir Kadir, FLS "Ekzarh Yosif" - Razgrad

The camp received positive feedback from nearly all the participants. We would like to make it an annual event if we receive the financial support to do so. This event was held with the financial assistance and support of the Bulgarian-American Fulbright Educational Exchange Commission.

We are now looking forward to a packed September when we will hold our new Management Team's training, a second Summer Slam showcase, Student Leader Training and a new and improved Coach Training, While we are unsure what awaits us in the coming year with a new lockdown looming over, we are eager to get back to tournaments, be it virtually or in person. One way or another, BEST is here to stay!