Engage 1000 Bulgarian students in public speaking

After the amazing spring tournaments and the incredible International tournament in March, on April 27th and 28th we held the National Tournament at The University of Nationals and World Economy in Sofia. We had 350 young adults from all over Bulgaria who took part in the tournament, which is 26 % more students than the last academic year (for comparison we had 256 students last year). That increase was expected since we had around 20 % more students participating in the regional tournaments this year and we can not be more happy with such results. 

Our Nationals happened with the support and hard work of the 90 judges who dedicated their weekend to evaluating the outstanding performances of the students (for comparison we needed 80 judges last year). As every year we had alumni judges who were travelling from different European countries to help the students with their constructive feedback. We also had 15 student volunteers who helped us with the logistics and organisation. The management team of the foundation, which also consists of young professionals who are volunteers, did amazing work and managed to provide a smooth and organised tournament to all - the students, coaches and judges. 

The National tournament was huge and gathered best performances through the 4 regional competitions. The students came from 34 schools throughout the whole country to showcase their talent and critical thinking. 

The opening ceremony was filled with inspiring and interesting speeches from our honored guest speakers. We welcomed on the stage our superheroes and supporters - Ivo Bossev - Impact assessment and evaluation officer at America for Bulgaria Foundation, Jeffrey Weinshenker - Public affairs officer at the US Embassy in Bulgaria, Angela Rodel - Executive director of Fulbright Bulgaria and Prof. d-r Dimitar Dimotrov - Rector of our host - University of National and World economy.

The Executive director of Lead by Example foundation (who support our Debate program) - Svetoslav Dragiev greeted the competitors at the closing ceremony and motivated them to continue with the hard work, he also provided the trophies to the winning Debate teams. We also had the honor to welcome on the stage the Board Chair of the Bulgarian Debate Association - Nikolay Angelov, the successful motivational speaker and owner of Fast Track company - Hristo Popov and  also Filip Lyapov, Fulbright’s new Education USA advisor. 

During the National tournament, we also organised awards for the honored judges of the BEST community. 19 judges received Awards for contribution and dedication in the BEST community. All of them participated in all tournaments through the academic year and received honor awards. 

When being grateful, we could not continue without mentioning our Coaches. Those people have dedicated their time and energy to support their students. Even though we believe that every single Coach has already received its biggest award - the love and gratitude of their students, we provided two special awards: International and Bulgarian Coach of the Year! 

This year we also had a special award which we provided to a couple of judges who made all our events even more funny by their own initiative. Five of the Judges initiated mass Zumba dances during the breaks of the tournaments. More than 100 students were dancing together during the short music and dance sessions and that's why we awarded our “Dancing Judges” with the “Chief of happiness” awards. 

Dear Friends, thank you all for your support! All that magic could not be possible without you!

We would be very grateful if you could share our GlobalGiving link with your friends and continue your support with monthly donations! We are gworing very fast and we need you more than ever! 

Your support leads to a significant change in the life of each and every student that participates in our tournaments and we are super grateful to have you as our angel! 

We wish you a wonderful rest of your summer!