“Debate is a great opportunity to meet new people, gain knowledge of current events, issues, and politics, and to go to new places in the world,” observed William Campbell.At 13-years-old he is one of the four youngest debaters in the nine-man Bermuda National Team travelling to Santiago, Chile for the Pan American Secondary Schools Debate Tournament to be held during the week of July 16th.In addition to the Saltus Grammar School student, the Bermuda team includes Bermuda High School students Megan Sutcliffe and Lillian Griffiths and Kimika Jackson from Sandys Secondary Middle School.The four 13-year-olds are the youngest ever to represent Bermuda in international debate competition.There will be Bermuda three teams in total, two with one 13-year-old and one team with two.The other members of the contingent are Marcus Bean of CedarBridge Academy, Jashonae Smith who attends Mount St Agnes, Glenn Simmons from The Berkeley Institute and two Saltus Grammar School students, Nicholas Pell and Michaela Ratteray.The rationale for teaming younger debaters with older debaters, some with Worlds or Pan Am experience, is so that the more experienced debaters will actively mentor the younger ones.The youngest members have been training for three years with one of the Bermuda Worlds coaches, Gladstone Thompson, through his organisation Dynamic Debaters.They also train with their school coaches and have experienced considerable success in debate competition in Bermuda, according to Susan Behrens, who will be travelling with the contingent.The other countries that are involved in the English-speaking debates are Chile, Peru, Mexico, and the United States.There is another series of debates all in Spanish, so the Bermuda team are looking forward to seeing what other countries will be participating in those debates.In addition, the Bermuda Debate Society has submitted a bid to host the Pan Ams in Bermuda next year, 2013.Mr. Thompson returned last summer from taking the Bermuda team to the Worlds in Scotland with a mission to get Bermudian debaters exposed to international competition at a younger age in order to prepare them to compete at the Worlds.The four youngsters have been working toward this goal all year, and among the challenges they have worked to overcome is adapting to the international debates which are three minutes longer than local debates.“The transition from a five minute speech to an eight minute speech may not seem like much,” William admitted, “but when you are speaking on the stage, eight minutes seems like months, and you are in greater danger of running out of things to say!“This is especially true in the impromptu (unprepared) rounds where we have one hour with only an almanac for reference. There will be four impromptus and three prepared motions in two days. It will be intense!”Though the preparation will be hard work, and the competition fierce, the debaters are looking forward to the experience.“I hope to enjoy my visit to Chile this summer,” William said. “And I hope to meet and debate against many new people. Chile will be an enjoyable experience and I would like to learn more about Chilean culture.”