Kate Nozal

This summer I had the pleasure of partnering with the Minnesota Urban Debate League (MNUDL). The MNUDL provides debate programming and resources to hundreds of middle and high school students in the Twin Cities to support the development of critical thinking and advocacy skills. Their programs include high school and middle school policy debate, financial literacy debate, Spanish debate, and East African debate.

I already had familiarity with the organization as I have worked with them in the past as a policy debate coach at Highland Park High School. I saw the Chuck Green Fellowship as a way to expand my role beyond coaching to assist with projects that may not otherwise get done as the staff work on other important goals. I completed data analysis/visualization projects to make recommendations to the board regarding demographics, expansion, and accessibility. My first major project involved cleaning census data to create visualizations and recommendations of what cities and school districts the Spanish and East African debate programs should be expanded to in order to serve as many students as possible. My second project was to produce a reading-level score for each document of evidence produced for each of the programs in the last ten years. I then presented my findings to other fellows responsible for putting together the evidence packets for 2024 to explain trends and provide best practices to make the evidence more accessible and grade-level appropriate. I also worked on several smaller projects for volunteer recruitment and networking. 

It was very fulfilling to be able to develop my skills while also fulfilling a need for an organization that I care about. Additionally, I had many opportunities for professional development and learning the organizational structure of a non-profit. I am extremely grateful to have had the opportunity to be a Chuck Green Fellow and I want to thank the rest of my cohort, Lisa Mueller, and the MNUDL staff.