In February, hundreds of students will travel to Philadelphia to debate at a national tournament hosted at UPenn.

With your help, 45 of our debaters will be among them.

Last year, we brought 14 of our students to compete at UPenn. They were the ONLY debaters from low-income NYC public schools debating at this national circuit tournament. They rocked it: three of them advanced to Semi-Finals, and one got all the way to Finals.

When we announced to the kids this year that we didn't have the funds to go back to UPenn this February, they were really bummed. They know that representation matters, and they (rightfully) want to be competing at the same national tournaments as the kids from private schools.

But here's the thing about running a debate league: when the kids really want something to happen, they're very good at making a strong argument for why.

They made their case, and we heard them loud and clear. And that's why we’re excited to announce that all funds raised during our Giving Tuesday campaign will go directly to sponsoring BDL students at this year's UPenn tournament.

This year, we're aiming to bring an entire chartered bus full of kids to compete at UPenn, and with your help, we can make it happen.

It costs us about $1K per debater to bring kids to a weekend-long tournament like UPenn. That might seem like a lot, but the costs add up quickly, particularly since we are providing all of the wraparound services needed to support them, including hotel rooms, a chartered bus, meals, registration fees and professional competition clothes, as well as all of the costs for their school coaches and chaperones. We are FULLY covering the cost of this trip for our Title I partner schools, because we don’t want any kid left behind because they can’t afford to go.

Please help us send our debaters head back to Philly this year to represent NYC with pride.

We promise they won’t let you down.