CDL Year-End Awards

The Chicago Debate League bestows a number of year-end awards at the Chicago Debate Championship each year. The Richard M. Daley Leadership Award has already been selected and will be announced at the Awards Ceremony on March 29th, 2014. The Betty Willhoite Award is given to the school with the highest level of debate participation over the course of the season. It will be determined, finally, by T6 participation. The Golden Gavel Award has been voted on by coaches, and a single Golden Gavel Award winner will be selected from the eight finalists that have been determined by coach vote, though won’t be announced until March 29th. They Seymour Simon Award has been selected by the CDL administration, as has the Principal of the Year — both will be announced on March 29th.

What follows are additional year-end awards for which we are seeking nominations. All nominations are due on March 14th. Nomination forms should be sent to cdc@resources.chicagodebates.org.

The 2014 Voltaire Sterling Debater of the Year Award is given to the debater who best demonstrates competitive excellence, preparation, dedication to improvement, and ability to lead their school to new or already high levels of achievement.

The 2014 Chicago Debate League Alum of the Year Award is given to the Chicago Public Schools graduate who best exemplifies the long-term impact that participating in the Chicago Debate League has had on thousands of students.

The 2014 Adjudicator of the Year Award is given to the CDL judge who demonstrates the most consistent dedication to and effectiveness in the judge’s role to fairly uphold the standards at the center of competitive academic debate, and to provide educationally valuable feedback to aid debaters in their development.

The CDL administration will be raffling off a $50 Amazon gift card at T6 for submitting nominations for these awards, and coaches put their name in the running every time they submit a nomination form in one of the award categories. So, if a coach nominates three alumni for the 2014 Alum of the Year Award, she will get her name in the raffle pool once. But if she submits one nomination in all three of the categories above, her name will be in the raffle pool thrice.