WCMC-Q Debaters Compete at World Debate Championship
in Botswana
January 2011
The WCMC-Q debate team and Cornell Ithaca teams stood up against
teams from prominent universities around the world, such as Harvard,
Cambridge, and Oxford.
Four members of the WCMC-Q debate team recently traveled to the World University Debate Championship at Botswana University in Gaborone. Joined by their coach, Rodney Sharkey, Ph.D., assistant professor of English, the students tested their skills against students from prominent universities including Oxford, Cambridge and Harvard.
“The great benefit of attending the world championships is that our students get first-hand exposure to the quality, intellectual capacity, and the drive and determination of the best students from the best universities around the world,” Sharkey says.
The students debated on everything from quotas in national sports teams to accommodate ethnic minorities to the recent banking crisis. While there were no first-place finishes, the WCMC-Q team was grateful to have a chance to experience the high standards of international competition and enjoy the reward of new friendships.
“The major benefit to us and to WCMC-Q,” says Emad Mansoor Alam, first-year medical student, “is the sheer amount of new friends we made and the degree to which we promoted WCMC-Q to the world university community.
“Other students were pleasantly surprised by the strong presence of education, science and research in Qatar and showed great interest in visiting Education City. We exchanged e-mails and Facebook contacts to stay connected with each other.”
The four members of the WCMC-Q debate team—Emad Mansoor Alam, first-year medical student, Zahra Naqvi, first-year medical student, Lina Abdul Karim, second-year premed student, and Mutie Ullah Ahmed, second-year premed student—were chosen to attend based on their performance over the course of the year, through debates among members of the WCMC-Q debate team and between WCMC-Q debaters and those from other universities throughout Qatar.
By Emily Alp
WCMC-Q debate team members Mutie Ullah Ahmed (2nd from left), Emad Mansoor Alam (4th from
left), Zahra Naqvi (2nd from right), and Lina Abdul Karim (right) with Georgetown School of Foreign
Services-Qatar students at the Botswana Nature Reserve.
