A New Chapter for VBD

I started posting on VBD in 2003 when I was a junior at Vassar College. After that, I had the opportunity to become the director of student life at VBI. Today, in 2011, I am a classroom teacher and the director of one the largest teams in the United States. It has been exciting to build this web site and it has been exciting to rebuild the Bronx Science program.

Directing a speech and debate team with over three hundred active members while teaching 136 students AP US Government is a formidable challenge, and it is one that made all the more challenging by my service as president of the New York State Debate Coaches Association and co-director of the Metro-Hudson League. I say this not to pat myself on the back, but to acknowledge reality: I’m no longer a junior at Vassar, and so I’m no longer able to provide the community with the type of web site I have tried to provide for so long. If there were more hours in the day, perhaps. But there are not. And it is important that I be honest about that.

These last few years, my own posting volume has decreased noticeably. I’ve known that myself for some time. VBD has been such an important part of my life in debate, and so it’s been hard to acknowledge it. But it’s time for that acknowledgment, and thus, it’s time for the start of a new chapter on this site.

I owe so much of my present career to the opportunities given to me by the Victory Briefs organization, and by Mike Bietz and Victor Jih more specifically. I also owe so much to the support of the community that I’ve long tried to serve through volunteering to run this web site. I will remain forever grateful to you all.

For now, if you have news and stories to contribute, please contact Mike Bietz. VBD will undergo some changes as it strives to include more community participation in the posting of news and updates.

For those who will be at Bump this weekend or the Glenbrooks the next weekend, I look forward to seeing you there. For those I’ll see later on, I can’t wait to see you. And for those who have read from afar, I am confident that the best in online content is yet to come. I know I’m looking forward to reading it!