Groton Student Qualifies for International Debate Championship

Jiacheng Kang ’22 competed in the World Individual Debating and Public Speaking Championships April 23–26, a rare feat last accomplished by a Groton student fifteen years ago. At the virtual competition, Jiacheng qualified for the finals in three of four events—debating, persuasive speaking, and interpretive reading.

"The debating was very paradigm-shifting," he said of the international competition. "In my first debate, I was paired with a student from Lithuania, and I debated against students from South Africa. Throughout the debate, students from the two different countries brought up examples that I was not familiar with, and I learned a ton about Lithuania from my own partner."

One topic for debate was whether the Confederate flag should be banned in accordance with a law passed in Germany that prohibited the swastika. "Hearing how students from other countries think about issues such as freedom of expression vastly expanded my worldview," Jiacheng said.

Jiacheng's pre-competition training helped prepare him for the world event. “At most tournaments my partner and I usually think about arguments and examples from the United States alone," he said before the championship, adding that he was "excited to see how students from different countries influence my perspective on various resolutions.”

Qualifying for Worlds is not easy. “A debater in our league needs to place as the best advanced speaker at a qualifying tournament sometime during the fall and winter terms,” said Michael Gnozzio ’03, Groton math teacher and debate advisor. “This means besting approximately one hundred other competitors. Jia managed to tie for first place at the Loomis Chaffee tournament in January and so is one of only twelve Americans to qualify for the tournament this year.”

With the help of a group of dedicated Fifth and Sixth Form students, Jiacheng was able to hone his skills via weekly Zoom practice debates last summer. His hard work paid off in consistent successes in smaller debates throughout the fall.

“Jiacheng keeps the flare, puts things into perspective, and doesn’t get bogged down in the semantics,” said Groton Debating Society president Samarth Agarwal ’21. “He’s super strong rhetorically, really good at leveraging what his opponents have said against them, great at emphasis, and always grabs the crowd’s attention.”

Jiacheng is not the only successful debater on Groton’s team; increased student leadership and sustained interest from both novice and advanced level students led Groton debaters to win "best school" at a recent tournament.

“The best part about being a part of Groton’s debate team is the amount of support that I have received from both teammates and faculty alike,” said Jiacheng, who related a story about debate advisor and Classics teacher Andres Reyes ’80, who coached debaters virtually despite being in Europe, where it was 3:00 a.m. “I feel like Dr. Reyes’ efforts in helping debaters improve is representative of the extent to which the debate faculty are willing to go to support students’ endeavors,” said Jiacheng.

If not for the pandemic, the competition would have been held in a major international city. This year's virtual championship was hosted by South Korea. Stephen McCarthy ’06 competed in the 2005 World championship in Cyprus. The last Grotonian to reach Worlds, Sebastian Osborn ’06, had the mixed blessing of competing in his home state of Connecticut.

"Even though I didn't end up winning in any of the categories, the whole experience was full of fun and learning," said Jiacheng, "and I cannot thank Dr. Reyes, Mr. Gnozzio, and Steven Pang '22 enough for their help and support in my preparation for the tournament."—Alexandra Karr '21

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