Phi Beta Sigma Fraternity, Inc.

EDUCATION

Bro. Theo Peugh Regional Director of Education tdpeugh@hotmail.com
Bro. Jarred Honora Louisiana State Director of Education jhonora@xula.edu	Bro. Marvis Kilgore Texas State Director of Education marvis_kilgore@yahoo.com

Regional High School Oratorical Contest

The planning and preparation for the contest is well underway. For this first competition, the decision was made to encourage male high school seniors from the New Orleans area to apply for and participate in the upcoming competition (similar to the way we ask the host chapter at every regional conference to identify local area students who should receive regional scholarships). The preliminary competition will be held at the Louisiana State Conference and the finals will be held at the Gulf Coast Regional Conference (both conferences will be held in New Orleans in 2012). I want to give special thanks to our Louisiana State Director of Education Bro. Jarred Honora who has taken a lead role in contacting area schools to market this event and who spoke with our Louisiana State Director Bro. Cockrell about having the preliminary competition at the state conference.

Regional Adopt a School / Adopt a School District Program

One of the main objectives of our Adopt a School / Adopt a School District Program is to establish a grassroots effort to get personally involved with the children/youth in our respective communities and to serve as role models.

As I have stated before I realize that each community has different needs. One event may work well in one location and not so well in another. This is why there hasn’t been an emphasis placed on a particular type of program, but rather the emphasis has been placed on identifying and attempting to meet the specific needs of the children/youth in our respective areas. If your chapter has not yet scheduled an educational program for the school year, please strongly consider mentoring. Our Texas State Director of Education Bro. Marvis Kilgore has developed the “Each One, Reach One Mentorship and Empowerment Program” for his chapter and it has been a success. I would encourage you to communicate with him to see if this program is something your chapter could use. Regardless of whether this program is a fit for your chapter or not; please remember that children/youth can only be influenced by the role models (good or bad) that they are exposed to and we must continue to do what we can to promote the value of education in our respective communities.

Please take a moment to review the current graduation and dropout rates for Texas and Louisiana at:
http://www.tea.state.tx.us/index4.aspx?id=3505&menu_id=2147483659
http://www.louisianaschools.net/topics/cohort_rates.html

School Board Meetings

I also want to encourage each chapter to send one or more of your members to attend your local area school board meetings. In addition to discussing budgetary matters, there are also other important issues that are raised that pertain to how schools will operate, parental concerns, educator concerns etc….

Attending these meetings will also help your chapter develop relationships with other leaders connected to the education system.

Education Directors and Collegiate Advisors

Our focus on education has to be both external (community based) and internal (brother based). I am asking each education director to partner with his collegiate advisor counterpart to offer support and assistance to our collegiate brothers. We have too many brothers in the Region for any brother to feel like he has to deal with something alone.

Communication

How many times have we said collectively, “We are doing a lot of great things in the Gulf Coast Region, but we are not reporting them”?

There is an old saying, “If we keep doing the same thing, we are going to get the same results”.

Brothers, I know that the chapters across the Region are doing great things in Education and in other areas. We have to make sure that the information is properly reported to the National Office. Doing so will assist our International Leadership as they attempt to secure and maintain partnerships and/or funding opportunities. Please keep in mind, having this information on file from our seven regions can also potentially help each of our local chapters as we seek support from individuals/agencies in our respective communities. Imagine how much easier it would be if you could show someone or some entity what the Fraternity is doing as a whole as it relates to a particular area of interest in addition to what your own chapter is doing.

Additionally, I want to continue to encourage our chapters across the Region to share information about their education activities and to give advance notice of when your chapter will be hosting an educational event.

Alain Leroy Locke Honors Chapter Application
The purpose of the Alain LeRoy Locke Honors Chapter is to recognize our scholastically high achieving Collegiate Brothers. The submission period is from January 15th to March 15th.

2011 Oratorical and Debate Contest Entry Form
FORM MUST BE POSTMARKED BY MARCH 28, 2011

Study Guides

SAT Study Guide ACT Study Guide GRE Study Guide MCAT Study Guide

2011 Gulf Coast Regional Conference - Oratorical Contest

Oratorical Topic: IS COLLEGE A NECESSITY IN THE 21ST CENTURY?
Participants must adhere to the following contest rules:

Each participant will have seven minutes to address the given topic
No props are allowed
Each participant must present a perspective supported with relevant reasons and/or examples
Participants must demonstrate a knowledge of current issues to validate perspectives
Participants must be able to organize thoughts in a cohesive and fluid manner

2011 Gulf Coast Regional Conference - Debate Contest Topic & Format

Debate Topic: MILITARY DEPLOYMENT
Please note: The specific question and research resources can be found at www.debate-central.org
We will use the cross examination format.

Phi Beta Sigma Fraternity partners with the National Center for Policy Analysis Project and Debate Central to avail our debaters with the most up to date resources.
Each region will sponsor a two-member team to compete in National Debate Contest.

Step 1: Refer to the following website: www.debate-central.org
Step 2: Click the Research Topics Link (You should see the topic under the Cross Examination Section)
Step 3: Review the Research Topic Link for a variety of resources which can be implemented in your debate. Especially take note of the Glossary Terms which will strengthen your vocabulary of selected topic.
Step 4: Click on the Learn Debate Link and scroll down to Understand Cross Examination Debate.
Step 5: Click on Understand Cross Examination Debate and then scroll down to Outline of CX Debate.
Step 6: Click on Outline of CX Debate and review the debate outline structure. Teams must prepare for both the affirmative and negative.
Step 7: Once you have reviewed the debate format return to the Understand Cross Examination Debate Page and click on The Code of the Debater: Introduction to the Way of Reason. This should be extremely supportive in understanding the intricacies of debating.
Step 8: Your team preparation for the debates should include use of resources on the Debate Central website; however, you may use others as well. Be sure to also review the Evidence Link to gain valuable insight and details.

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