“It was a Fairy Tale Beginning!” To rewind, Speech and Debate India’s Founder, Mr. Rajiv Kacholia described the journey, “As we were completing our first year, I wanted our students to start experiencing the excitement of international debate events. The potential for challenge and development was more imperative than the inevitable losses at a global level against veteran programs. On January 2nd, 2021, the Global Chronicles 2.0 course was launched, with a unique pedagogical approach to train gifted students for international debating formats, in-depth topic analysis, and developing robust affirmative and negative cases.”

The greatest surprise? Mr. Kacholia added, “My goal was for our teams to become globally competitive in 5 years. So, it was a deeply proud moment, after just 5 weekends of coaching, as we all gathered online after each round at the Stanford University Debate Tournament in February to hear that some of our teams were already starting to win international tournament rounds. And now in 3 months, one of our High School teams won 5 of 6 preliminary rounds. We were thrilled! They then powered through Doubles, Octa finals, and Quarterfinals, all the way to Semifinals at the Georgetown University Debate Tournament – that was incredible, an unexpected early milestone!”

Advancing Indian debate. In its first 3 months, Speech and Debate India’s Global Chronicles students have rapidly advanced India on the global debate map. Middle School and High School Global Chronicles teams have been recognized as finalists by reaching elimination rounds at each of its first four tournaments. These have included Stanford University, Harvard University, and the recent Georgetown University Debate Tournaments.

Student perspectives? Here are four of Speech and Debate India’s outstanding Middle School and High School debaters on their experience at the Georgetown University tournament. More student views are available athttps://www.speechdebateindia.com/students

A research-backed approach. Speech and Debate India’s debate courses are taught live by U.S. faculty to advance student leadership skills and train for Regional, National, International tournaments.Mr. Rajiv Kacholia is a former U.S. State Debate Champion, an alumnus of Stanford University and Goldman Sachs, and Founder of Speech and Debate India, empowering students across India. Mr. Kacholia’s unique pedagogy is research-backed with collaborative formats that are rigorous and exciting. Courses and tournament experience help introverts and extroverts gain confidence, develop critical thinking skills, and nurture creativity, key 21st century skills. Learn more at https://www.speechdebateindia.com/academy