Beaming with the spoils of victory, a crowd of teenagers at Townsend Middle School in Chino Hills line themselves under the shade of a tree—eyes wide and happy—as a photographer starts snapping. Their blue polo shirts identify them as members of the school's champion debate team, the same team congratulated by the superintendent in a letter hanging outside the principal's office. The team photo, a memento of their winning season, will be mailed to school district officials. Students shuffling by between classes give a shout to the debaters. "Townsend Debate!" yells a girl in flipflops and a Hello Kitty T-shirt. A boy in the group responds, thrusting a trophy skyward—and another chorus of cheers erupts.

In this brief moment, victory is across the board. It is the point at which CMC Director of Forensics John Meany, Director of Debate Outreach Kate Shuster, and students in The Claremont Colleges Debate Union quantify the sum of their investment. It is a snapshot of applied leadership, pride in jobs well-done, and the stratospheric success and growth that the Debate Union, first nurtured and developed within CMC's halls, has enjoyed in the past decade. As the 5-C program manifests its success with growing outreach for middle and high school kids, it is changing the lives of its participants.

"This program," says Paul Bates, debate coach at Townsend and co-president of the Inland Valley Debate League, "is likely to be a benchmark in students' educations. For so many, it's the first time they truly earned self-esteem because they achieved something difficult."

Success of the middle school program mirrors the long-standing triumphs of the Debate Union at home. Reflecting on its recent season, the 100-plus members of the Union's 2003-04 team, whose freshman-class tilt might have led competitors to expect a cakewalk, earned instead a fourth-place finish overall among 309 competing colleges, beating teams from Grinnell, Rice, Notre Dame and UC Berkeley at the National Parliamentary Debate Association's championship last April. It also marks the 12th consecutive year that The Claremont Colleges teams placed in the top 10, and the third year in the top five. In a separate competition involving 150 U.S. colleges, Union teams earned second-place honors from the Cross Examination Debate Association, for best advocating the values associated in public discourse in their second major national face-off.

As one of the few programs with success records in both national and international parliamentary debate tournament competitions, the wins are even more impressive when considering the nature of the sport. "There is only one guarantee in debate competition," Meany says. "At the conclusion of a presentation, no matter how well a position is argued, no matter how persuasively it is delivered, an opponent will rise and say, 'I am sorry, but you are wrong.' This feature of debate compels participants to do more than offer an informed opinion. To succeed, a debater must offer the best possible expression of an opinion."

As conclusive as the Debate Union's success is, Meany, who arrived in Claremont 17 years ago as assistant director, believes that college debate "isn't about winning. It's about learning the skills—teamwork, leadership, research, argumentation, and public speaking—that will serve students well in their careers," he says. That philosophy notwithstanding, his students not only graduate as more effective communicators and leaders, but also leave a legacy of debating success that the nation's most competitive colleges seek to emulate.

Andrea Fitanides '02, entering her junior year at the Boalt Hall School of Law at UC Berkeley in fall, was an award winner at the 2000 national debate championship, and while at CMC, served as summer faculty at debate workshops in Estonia, Slovenia, and Russia.

"Debate was the single most important part of my educational experience and an indispensable part of my preparation for law school and the practice of law itself," Fitanides says. "This is true not only in terms of the oral advocacy skills that it develops—which are a great help when speaking in front of judges or first-year moot court panels—but also in terms of analytical and research skills. Debate prepared me for the rigorous nature of legal reasoning and argumentation."

If outcomes are any indication, this mantle of leadership will be handed down to thousands of students as the Debate Union casts its net among adolescents. The success of the Union's outreach program has made it a national model for academic extracurricular activities. When Meany and Shuster teamed up in 2002 to establish a middle schools program, designed to stretch the boundaries of the typical local high school program, they were creating from scratch, building the infrastructure and designing the format. It is now considered the nation's best and the largest, serving about 3,500 students and providing curriculum and materials for teachers who want to manage their own leagues. "We wanted to match the educational needs of middle school students," Shuster says, "with the demands and thrills of elite debate."

As evidence of the program's success, Desert Springs Middle School, in the Coachella Valley, recently won the national title at the Junior National Forensic League National Championship at the University of Houston; the students entered five events and all placed in the top 10 in the nation.

Piloting one of the largest and most successful college debate teams in the country with a two-person staff is a study in efficiency. The Union includes many more students and program opportunities than other college debate programs. Yet, by comparison, the majority of college debate teams have more full-time and part-time coaches, nearly all have more paid staff, and some have as many as six or seven coaches.

Students essentially become academicians in the debate arena, and readily credit Meany's drive and determination for their success. "John goes out of his way to help us prepare," says Justin Levitt '06, a PPE/Spanish double major. "He'll make things available, whether it's travel expenses, practice tournaments, or study materials."

Given an opportunity to discuss his students, Meany is effusive. "I am always humbled by their performances," he says. Specifically addressing last season's rankings, he notes, "These were really extraordinary accomplishments. It takes many good students to be that successful. It's even more impressive when you calculate in the fact that our teams are so heavily represented by freshmen, many of whom had no debate experience in high school. Our success in both competitions makes The Claremont Colleges the only team to place in the top 10 in both public and parliamentary debate national championships this year."

Every trip to the podium requires hours of focused preparation. From the moment students move to campus, the work begins: Debate Union meetings, discussions on tactics and argumentation theories, weekly seminars (observing demonstration debates and participating in practice sessions), scrimmages with teams from neighboring colleges, researching the most likely issues and producing issues briefs, learning facts and figures and points pro and con, and anticipating responses to arguments on topics ranging from the FCC to the role of religion in American government.

"It takes very sophisticated critical thinking skills," Meany says.

Feeding the Colleges' strong performance over the years, Meany asserts, is The Claremont Colleges' rigorous education and seminar-sized classes, and students' keen interest in economic and political issues. Another factor, particularly for CMC team members, he says, is the College's focus on leadership. "They're ready to step up and take charge. Because our students are capable of operating at a professional level," he says, "it's easy to delegate responsibility. They operate as genuine partners."

This teacher-student partnership is a major factor in the success of the middle schools program, which has enticed thousands of students from more than 70 area middle schools to become debaters. "We delegate to our students, and they turn around and reach out for the middle school students," Shuster says. A pioneering concept, the program has been such a hit that Shuster has established an Independent Schools League to include private Southland middle schools in this fall's competition. She also has begun work with area high schools as the program's middle school students move to senior high campuses and start looking for debate opportunities there. "Debate is a great way to interest middle and high school students in college," she explains, "especially when they can come to CMC for tournaments, see the campus, and get to know some of our students."

Greg Paulk, debate coach at Desert Springs Middle School, agrees. "This is a low-income community," he says. "These kids have every strike against them. But when they went to CMC for the finals, they were amazed," he says. "When they left, it wasn't 'I might go to college.' It was 'I will go.'"

Anthony Gibson, Frisbie Middle School's debate coach and co-president of the Inland Valley Debate League, identifies benefits that cross curricular lines. "To debate, you're required to research, write, and discuss many subjects. Science and social studies are the primary topics," he says, "but math education also is supported by the use of statistics."

Participating in debate has turned Townsend seventh-grader Richard Maier on to political issues. "I watched the California gubernatorial debates on TV, and saw how Arnold Schwarzenegger drew his opponent into talking about certain issues, extending topics that he wanted to discuss," Maier says.

Townsend has a waiting list for students wanting to join debate, further proving that, despite stereotypes, teenagers have a vested interest in the world around them.

International debate, in particular, is that perfect opportunity to think globally, says alumna Andrea Fitanides. "I discussed issues outside with people from different frames of reference, and gained a much greater depth of understanding about world events," she says.

"Debate stimulates and refines communication skills that empower individuals to speak for themselves—to discover and use their own voices," Meany says. "Our students will go into a packed auditorium, with hundreds and thousands of people in their presence, and discuss the issues.

"If a student can master it," he says, "I simply can't imagine a personal or professional setting in which they wouldn't excel."

Learn more about the Debate Union's other projects: http://www.mckenna.edu/news/cmcmagazine/2004summer/debate-extra/

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"Because our students are capable of operating at a professional level, it's easy to delegate responsibility. They operate as genuine partners," Meany says.