Profiles

Students
Adrienne Langlois ’10

Faculty
Seth Spielman

Alumni
Paul Lipson ’87
Sebastian Ruth ’97

Community Partners
Mariama Kurbally

Mariama Kurbally

community partner

“Debate definitely opened up doors for me,” recalls Rhode Island Urban Debate League alumna Mariama Kurbally. Once a shy sophomore and now a leader and innovator at Rhode Island College, Mariama credits the time spent with her high school’s fledgling urban debate team for getting her to where she is today.

Davies High School in Lincoln, Rhode Island didn’t have a debate team when Mariama arrived. When a new teacher enlisted her help in launching a debate team, her shyness almost kept her from joining. But when she heard the year’s topic, Resolved: The United States federal government should substantially increase its public health assistance to Sub-Saharan Africa, Mariama’s intellectual curiosity overcame her nervousness, and she signed on.

No one on her high school team had ever debated before, and they approached their first tournaments with trepidation. But she and her teammates soon found themselves doing increasingly well at competitions, and by the end of the year, Mariama and her partner found themselves the runners-up to attend the 2007 finals.

Now, a student at Rhode Island College, Mariama finds that the lessons she learned as a high school debater continue to serve her well. After arriving on campus, she immediately noticed that there was no communal forum in which to discuss issues that were affecting her immediate community and the global community at large. So Mariama founded Live, Inspire, Fight, Educate (L.I.F.E.), which brings together students to discuss and debate important global issues.

As a double major in nursing and political science, Mariama intends to work her way towards becoming a public health lawyer.

When asked whether debate had changed her, she was unequivocal in her answer. “Being silent is never going to get you anywhere,” she replied. “Debate… needs to stay in the public schools here in Providence, because I know personally just how much of an impact it can have.”