HACIA Democracy
This year’s XXIII Summit of HACIA Democracy was hosted in Panama City, and The Oxford School had the pleasure of being a part of it. HACIA Democracy stands short for Harvard Association Cultivating Inter American Democracy. Students from Harvard have the pleasure of working with students and staff from all over Latin America to debate and find solutions to real world problems. HACIA has been going on since 1995 and hosts more than 500 students from all over America. They offer a variety of English and Spanish committees for bilingual speakers.
Achievements made by The Oxford School’s Delegation
Through rigorous training, The Oxford School’s delegation managed to surpass their own limits, which ultimately honored our school. The following students earned either an honorable mention, an outstanding delegate award or a best delegate award in their respective committee:
Jonathan Tawachi – Best Delegate: UN Security Council
Alicia Orellana and Vilma Orellana* – Best Delegate: UNASUR (English)
Amirah Ali – Outstanding Delegate: Pan-American Health Organization
Simon Luo – Honorable Mention: Inter-American Court of Human Rights
Adriana Perez – Honorable Mention: Supreme Court of the Spanish Empire
Alexis Sinclair and Abel Perez* – Honorable Mention: UNASUR (Spanish)
*- Double Delegation Committees
The Oxford School has also been awarded an Outstanding Large Delegation for its continuous effort through the four days of the Summit of HACIA Democracy.
In the image, from left to right: Abel Pérez, Alexis Sinclair, Amirah Alí, Adriana Pérez, Jonathan Tawachi, Vilma Orellana, Alicia Orellana, Simón Luo.
Why does this matter to you, as an Oxford student?
As an Oxford student, we must take pride in what our peers accomplish. In the school´s official webpage, part of the vision states “We educate students of all backgrounds, beliefs, cultures and abilities to pursue academic excellence in an environment of understanding, cooperation, tolerance and constant effort”. As an Oxford student, seeing one of our own excel in extracurricular activities, such as debate, should motivate the rest of the student body to break records and extend out the legacy in other aspects of society.
The Benefits of Debating
Learning to debate is a skill that is acquired through time. In recent years, debate has taken a huge step in being recognized by students, educators and young professionals as an effective way to discuss, analyze and solve real-life problems. This particular and unique form of communication is a medley of a variety of abilities that are essential to become a successful professional; it includes critical evaluation on a situation, problem-solving, public speaking, research on a specific topic, and most importantly, team-work, as delegates work together as a collective to look for the best solution to a given problem.
The ideal that debate bears goes beyond of what is coming up with the most adequate solution under a crisis or conflict. On one side, it raises up awareness and build up consciousness on modern global issues such as energy, technology, education, among others; on the other hand, it helps to enhance our knowledge to world history and past events, so that we are more experienced and less probable of committing a significant failure. Therefore, debate has been widely used at school institutions, business companies, global conglomerates and scientific organization as an efficient tool of expressing ideas that could contribute to your personal improvement and world’s progress.