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Communication Division Graduate Students Selected for National Debate Team  

Two Seaver College Communication Division graduate students, Francesca Smith and Gavin Humes, have been selected from a national pool by the Committee for International Discussion and Debate (CIDD) for its Spring 2007 British Isles tour. The CIDD is an educational committee within the National Communication Association (NCA), the largest professional organization of communication educators. The NCA provides all of the funding for the tour and student exchanges.

The selection process is nationally competitive, requiring students to have not only debate experience, but also teaching capabilities, basic international knowledge, and letters of recommendation from communication professionals. Only two individuals are chosen for each of the annual international tours, and it is very rare for both students to come from the same university.  

Specializing in parliamentary debate as well as impromptu and extemporaneous speaking, Smith, a first-year grad student, and Humes, a second-year grad student, also serve as student coaches for the award-winning Speech and Debate Team at Pepperdine. Their experience as collegiate debaters provides valuable expertise for the undergraduates who participate in this cocurricular activity. While traveling for the CIDD tour, Smith and Humes will represent not only Pepperdine University, but also the whole of organized debate in the United States.  

As members of the CIDD team, they will complete a whirlwind tour of Great Britain from mid-February through mid-March 2007, competing against a number of British university teams in public debates, demonstrating debate for both public and school groups, competing in international tournaments held at British universities, and most importantly for the exchange, holding debate workshops with groups varying from elementary school students through adults who attend the public debates.