Today’s high school students are tomorrow’s voters, activists and policy-makers. Ensuring they can navigate discord and foster discourse that advances progress on complex issues like nuclear threat is a wise investment toward a safer world, and there is no better format for developing these skills than debate. To ensure nuclear issues get onto the topic list for student debate teams, get involved with the organizations that govern high school debate nationally, and the ones that host debate opportunities during summer. Counsel them on how and why using this as a critical area of focus can cultivate interest and confidence in young people around nuclear danger.

1. Work with the four debating societies in the US: The National Speech and Debate Association, the National Catholic Forensic League, the National Christian Forensics and Communications Association, or Stoa to ensure that nuclear threat is a topic for national competition.
2. United Nations Association of Greater Boston (UNAGB) engages graduate and undergraduate students to pitch solutions related to the UN Development Goals; collaborate with organizations like this to incorporate nuclear risk reduction in conference planning.
3. Connect with a program offering summer debate to students with limited access during the school year, like Washington Urban Debate League’s Summer Camp.