By Lina Jarad | Executive Director
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!
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