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				Left, students from a participating school show the certificate they won in the college-hosted and student-organized debate tournament. photo by Karyn Wong (year 32) Pearson College Debate Tournament by Michael Beeler (Year 31), Tournament Director Is the world overreacting to terrorism? Should governments legalize polygamy? Must humans trade economic growth for an environmentally sustainable future? These questions were amongst those echoing across campus on January 21st during the first Pearson College Debate Tournament. The College hosted 16 teams and a dozen guests from lower Vancouver Island, treating them to four rounds of debate, a mini-One-World multicultural performance and an entertaining final round between the top two teams. Congratulations to the first place team of Nick Chesterley and Josh Hollenberg from Brentwood, and to all teams involved for their commendable conduct and performances.
	To me, the tournament was more than a debating event - it was a broad testament to the talent, generosity, solidarity and resourcefulness of the entire Pearson College community. A special thanks goes to ER for lending their printing facilities, to the cafeteria for allowing the guest influx, to the regional debate coordinator Sean Hayden for his valuable advice, and to the two dozen student and faculty/staff volunteers who helped judge and chair the debates on Saturday. To everyone who assisted in their own small way, I want to express my gratitude for your help in making this event the success it was. It is a great privilege to attend a school where support, enthusiasm and talent are so abound. It is an even greater privilege to work with such a dependable, dedicated and diligent debate team. In particular, I must applaud Shanoor Seervai (Year 32) and Yasmin Kassam (Year 32) for their outstanding work in the tabs room, crunching scores and setting pairings, as well as for their ongoing work leading up to January 21st. Also, I must thank the whole team for their patience and cooperation. Though my debating career began in the Cretaceous Period [well, almost], I had never organized a tournament before and I would certainly not have been able to do my job without my group's endless support and cohesive teamwork. While many of us were working out logistics, two of our debaters found themselves competing for their first time. English B students Quôc Hô Phú (Year 32) and Lucía Bonilla Lara (Year 32) rose to the nerve-rattling challenge of competing in a foreign language against native English speakers. They should pride themselves in a job well done! Fortunately, we were able to keep tournament costs low and generate enough money to support disaster relief in Guatemala in response to the destruction wrought by Hurricane Stan, as well as create a modest base for financing the tournament in future years, circumstances permitting. I sincerely hope that future tournaments will lead the College to find itself uniting, discussing, networking and fundraising once more. The foundation has been laid; with fingers crossed, I will wait to see what future years will build upon it. NEXT: UP INTO THE MOUNTAINS, INTO THE SNOW