Over the past several months, Students of BLA have had the privilege to attend Skype sessions led by Arham Habib, from California (USA), where he has introduced the students to the Lincoln-Douglas and Public Forum debate events. This program was established by Arham Habib in San Ramon Valley Unified School District in California, where it was introduced to four elementary schools. After local success, it strove to expand beyond just the USA’s borders. With the realization that opportunities to learn and compete in debate events were limited in other nations, the program came to Karachi with the aims of teaching the basics of each debate format and paving a path for international students to compete.
Arham Habib is currently a Senior at Monte Vista High School, located in Danville, California. He began speech and debate in 8th grade, competing in Congressional Debate, Lincoln-Douglas Debate, and Extemporaneous Speaking. He was 9th at the 2019 NSDA National Tournament, 2nd at the 2019 CHSSA State Tournament, and 3rd at the 2018 Stanford Invitational. He aspires to allow those from Pakistan to demonstrate their debate prowess internationally, and to give them a new outlet to express their voices.
Following the debate program, two selected students received a scholarship to further their studies at the Institute for Speech and Debate’s 2019 summer program, held in North Carolina
