The Zonta debate is an annual debate held between Sancta Maria College and Botany College, and hosted by Zonta International. The debate is always on a women’s issue, and Sancta Maria College had not won in the last eight years.
However, this year, our team changed that. Danica Loulie-Wijtenburg(Year 11), Julia Tenedero (Year 13) and Elizabeth Leaning (Year 13) made up our team that was negating the topic that “Issues for women in America are not issues for women in New Zealand”.
Although the team agreed strongly with the position they’d been given, they were also severely disadvantaged due to the makeup of the team. They would be against Botany’s team of Year 13s who compete in the Premier Advanced Grade (one grade above our highest competitor).
Nevertheless, the team made strong points about the universality of women’s rights, and were given a little bit of an edge by the fact that the opposing team only had one girl in it.
The adjudicators unanimously determined Sancta Maria College as the winners by an extensive margin, securing the Zonta Shield for our school.
The team was incredibly proud of their success, and hopes to continue working with Zonta to bring some of their initiatives into the school environment.
Elizabeth Leaning
