Baldwin’s Debate Club is back after a year’s hiatus, thanks to junior Arsita Khatiwada’s hard work.

When Khatiwada was a freshman, she participated in the club. But once the seniors running it graduated, the club no longer operated. 

Khatiwada first became interested in the club in hopes of becoming a lawyer, but now she participates for entertainment and to improve her public speaking abilities.

“I wanted to get better at public speaking and arguing with people, so I guess I just naturally went there,” Khatiwada said.

Because of her previous enjoyment of the club, this year she and her friends pushed for history teacher Christopher Reilsono to help start it up again and assist them in advertising it. 

“Arsita approached me one day and displayed real interest in resurrecting the Debate Club,” Reilsono said. “She had previously been a part of some of the meetings that we had and really wanted to create an environment that was supportive, engaging, and got kids as excited about debate as she was.” 

Khatiwada worked hard to bring the club back. She contacted both Reilsono and history teacher Natalie Kohnfelder to schedule meetings.

“She was the one that had the courage to reach out and organize the meeting,” junior Agnes Salako said.

Reilsono was happy to assist in the process of bringing back the club.

“Luckily, I’ve had Arsita in class before, so I know how hard working she is, how smart she is, and how passionate she can be,” Reilsono said.

With the help of promotion on Reilsono’s social media platforms, the club restarted in December with Kohnfelder as the new sponsor. Khatiwada was also successful in bringing in new members.

“There were a lot of new faces that I’ve never seen before at her first meeting,” Reilsono said.

Kohnfelder believes the club has been going well.

“There seems to be a pretty good turnout of kids, and they seem to be having fun,” Kohnfelder said.

She also said Khatiwada is proving to be a great leader.

“She comes ready with discussion topics and activities, and she plans out food for everyone,” Kohnfelder said.

Khatiwada enjoys watching and taking part in the sometimes lighthearted topics they debate during the meetings. 

“Our first debate was about whether water was wet or not,” Khatiwada said. “We just do fun little not serious sorts of topics and then alternate between formal debates as well.”

Some other debate topics have included movies versus books and whether or not cancel culture is beneficial for society. 

Reilsono saluted Khatiwada for this achievement.

“She saw something, set it as a goal, and accomplished it,” he said.