Southside Debaters

We, Nik Stamenkovic and Gabby Perez, are Seniors at John F. Kennedy High School on the South Side of Chicago and are looking to fundraise for the national debate tournaments that we hope to attend. These past four years, Nik and I have dedicated many hours to debate.   We have attended daily practices, attended many local tournaments each year, and even attended six weeks of camp each summer at Northwestern University. We have attended several highly competitive tournaments throughout Illinois and have experienced a level of success that is fairly unusual for a team from our conference. Nik and I would like to refine our argumentation and advocacy skills at upcoming tournaments including a tournament at Harvard in February.  

We are both extremely passionate about debate and hope to qualify for the Tournament of Champions held at the University of Kentucky. Unfortunately, as we attend a neighborhood school that is not accustomed to traveling to national circuit tournaments, we don’t have the same opportunities as schools with programs that travel to these tournaments regularly.  We have devoted countless hours to this activity and would love to be more competitive with teams that are more accustomed to a high level of competition and success. This is a great opportunity to help a pair of very dedicated students get a chance to prove themselves.