Speak, Argue, Inspire: A Master Class in DebateMaster ClassIn-Person
Friday, May 09, 2025
8:30 a.m. – 3:00 p.m
NY Bar Association
42 W 44th St
New York, NY 10036
Founded in 1876, the New York State Bar Association outlined its objectives in the organization’s founding constitution, which holds to this day: to cultivate the science of jurisprudence, promote reform in the law, facilitate the administration of justice, and elevate the standards of integrity, honor, professional skill and courtesy in the legal profession.
In this master class, we will explore different schools of debate and various exercises, then engage in formal arguments with one another. That is, we will debate! From warm-up drills to organizational challenges, this class will cover everything needed to create a vibrant debate practice in any kind of educational setting. Experienced speech and debate coaches will be given priority, but no experience is required.
SPEECH & DEBATE, SOCIAL STUDIES, PUBLIC SPEAKING
K.M. “DiCo” DiColandrea
K.M. “DiCo” DiColandrea is a co-founder of the Brooklyn Debate League, a nonprofit organization supporting speech and debate programming in NYC public schools. Their long career in debate stretches back to their days as a student debater on the Stuyvesant High School Speech & Debate Team. After graduating from Yale with a BA in philosophy, they joined Teach for America and soon started debate teams at the Frederick Douglass Academy and Achievement First Brooklyn High School. Their teams were champions at national tournaments that included Harvard, UPenn, Columbia, and St Joseph’s University, and were featured in Time Magazine, MSNBC, The Kelly Clarkson Show, and Malcolm Gladwell’s podcast, Revisionist History. DiCo is a recipient of the Teach for America Alumni Award for Excellence and the Jewish Education Project’s Robert Sherman Young Pioneers Award. The National Speech and Debate Association named them a First Diamond Coach and awarded them the Brother Sterner Lifetime Service Award in 2022.