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- I was an official volunteer guide for the Gay Games in Sydney in 2002- I gracefully accepted a Gold Medal from a winner, being the captain of the Papua New Guinea Netball Team, on behalf of the hetero-community- I created a new option on the application form for the Mardi Gras Association under sexuality. The options used to be Gay, Straight, Trans, Bi, I added a box on my form and called it 'Greek' then ticked it. Let's not discriminate people!- I have championed the rights of Gays, Lesbians and Transgender people for most of my adult life and- Have verbally straightened-out many gay men when they say it's strange to have sexual relations with women "'oooh yuck'" how could you?" they would squeal.

A2A: Yes, high school debate helps in college admissions. There is no pre-med school. You just choose a major while in college and take the prerequisite courses needed to matriculate in a medical school.Speech Helps with College AdmissionsFirst, speech and debate improves academic performance because of the improved writing, literacy, communication and critical thinking skills gained in the activity. This alone will enhance the prospects for college admission and performance. But, colleges are not only looking at grades nowadays and extracurricular activities are important to remain competitive in the college admissions process.One of the most respected extracurricular activities by colleges is high school speech and debate. The Wall Street Journal has cited statistics showing that “dedicated participation in drama and debate has significantly increased the success rate of college applicants at all schools which track such data. State and national award winners have a 22% to 30% higher acceptance rate at top-tier colleges and being captain of the debate team “improved an applicant’s chances by more than 60% compared to the rest of the pool.”Yale Application Reader Reveals 4 Proven Tips For Ivy League AdmissionJames Marshall Crotty ,CONTRIBUTORI cover education as a sector and as the bedrock of all sectors.Opinions expressed by Forbes Contributors are their own.There are no guarantees in the college admissions game, especially at name-brand institutions like those in the Ivy League. Not everyone is going to gain admission, even if, as I noted in my previous post, they meet the top benchmarks for acceptance: stratospheric test results and transcripts. 34,295 students applied to Harvard for the Class of 2018, and only 2,023 (5.9%) gained admission. Harvard could easily fill a second class that’s just as qualified with students from the “no” pile.So how do you improve your odds of admission with such a super-competitive applicant pool? Since I only attended an Ivy League school, Harvard, for summer debate camp, I am hardly the expert here. Thus, I turned to a former Yale University application reader, and specialist in college admissions counseling, Dr. Kat Cohen, of the appropriately entitled education consulting concern, IvyWise. Here's a paraphrase -- with my advice sprinkled in -- of what the good doctor ordered:1. Start Preparing As Early As PossibleColleges look at all four years of high school grades, courses and extracurricular involvement. They want to know that students are challenging themselves each year, and deepening their involvement in activities that interest them. Or, as I routinely tell high school students (not that they listen), college admissions teams want to see that you are a master of one thing (in my case, it was policy debate), not a jack of all extracurriculars. Sustained extracurricular involvement over all four years of high school is, thus, mission critical. Colleges, like marriage prospects, like future employers, want to see that you’re committed to your interest.English: Widener Library, Harvard University 2009 (Photo credit: Wikipedia)However, please don't get involved in an extracurricular activity because you think it will "look good" on your college application. Get involved in a project or activity that deeply engages you. If that's football, or chess, or the math club, or theater, or social work of some kind, it's all good. The main thing is passionate commitment. Remember: elite colleges are not asking you to be "well-rounded." They are looking to build well-rounded classes around a pool of world-class specialists.2. Take Harder Courses With Each Advancing YearThis one is a no-brainer. Just as college courses are designed to get more rigorous and intense with each passing year, so too should your high school courses. As I noted in my previous post, Superhuman High School Transcripts Are Key to Ivy League Admission, colleges want to see students taking harder courses each year on an upward grade trend so they can tell if you are prepared for a heavy college course load. So, take the most challenging courses you can find at your school or nearby community college. And work hard to get the best possible grades in these college-level courses.Recommended by ForbesSuperhuman High School Transcripts Are Key To Ivy League Admission. Is That...Undergraduate Grades Are Crucial To Your Future Academic Life: Get Them Ri...3. Essays Matter: Don’t Slack On The Common AppHighly selective institutions, like those in the Ivy League, ask supplementary essay questions in addition to the main Common Application essay. For example, Brown and Columbia ask variations of the “Why This College?” essay. These supplemental essays are very important because they are often school-specific and act as a way for the college to get to know you better. It’s important for students applying to any selective school, let alone the Ivies, to submit well-written, compelling essays that convey their voice, interests, who they are as a person and student, and how they would contribute to the campus community. Generic pabulum about how much you admire your wonderful grandma isn't going to cut it.I would add that just as in the job market, elite institutions, like elite employers, want to know that you've done your homework on the school, what it is about, and how you specifically fit into its mission (both in the classroom and out). However, please don't make this stuff up. This is why it is so important to know what you want out of college before you even apply. Instead of forcing yourself into what the college wants, find out what you want first. That will make answering college-specific questions easy and natural.4. Boost Your IQ (Interest Quotient): Demonstrated Interest MattersWith more students applying to more colleges than ever before, colleges are having a difficult time predicting yield, or the percentage of admitted students who end up enrolling. Colleges, especially highly selective institutions that might be battling against one another for highly qualified applicants, want to admit students who genuinely want to attend their specific school and are, thus, likely to enroll if admitted. Because of this uncertainty and the pressure to manage yield, more colleges are considering demonstrated interest -- the level of interest students have shown in their specific school -- to predict who is most likely to enroll and who isn’t. Things like visits, contact with the admissions office, interviews, applying early, are all considered elements of demonstrated interest. Applying in the early round, in particular, is one of the best ways for students to demonstrate interest, as early decisions are binding (meaning a student must attend if admitted) and single-choice early action prevents a student from applying to another private institution until they receive a decision from the first school.Early admission rates at Ivy League schools can be much higher than the regular admission rate. For example, for the Class of 2018 Harvard admitted 21% of applicants in the early round, and with an overall admit rate of 5.9%, that means Harvard admitted just 3% of applicants from the regular admissions pool. So, boost your IQ, and dramatically improve your odds.-- James Marshall CrottyAccidental Hero . College AdmissionsForensics and College AdmissionsProfessor Minh A. LuongYale UniversityFor nearly all high school seniors involved in forensics, this is a very busy time of the year. Between coursework, tournament preparation, and college applications, there is precious little time for much else. I began this academic year with a dozen email requests from former students for letters of recommendation and every week I receive several more. When I was a high school instructor, I wrote over twenty letters of recommendation every fall and compared to my colleagues who taught in public high schools, my commitment represented a relatively light load. Nearly every request for a recommendation that I receive is accompanied by a long list of extracurricular activities, community service projects, club memberships, and a transcript. Unfortunately, nearly all high school students make the erroneous assumption that participation in more activities is better than fewer and in an increasingly complex world that demands in-depth knowledge and expertise in a chosen field of study, colleges and universities are now preferring applicants who choose to be the best at single pursuit. "What counts," says Swarthmore College Dean of Admissions Robin Mamlet, "is how committed students are to an activity."Extracurricular activities like forensics are playing an increasingly important role in the college admissions as well as the scholarship awarding processes. Why? Grade inflation is rampant in both public and private secondary schools and test preparation programs are distorting the reliability of national standardized tests like the SAT and ACT. According to the Wall Street Journal (Interactive Edition, April 16, 1999), college admissions directors are relying less on grade point averages and standardized test scores, and are relying more on success in academically related extracurricular activities such as speech and debate as well as drama. Successful applicants to top schools still need to demonstrate academic success in their coursework as well as perform well on standardized tests, but the days of a 4.0 GPA and 1600 SAT score guaranteeing admission into a top school are gone. In 1998, Harvard University rejected over 50% of its applicants with perfect Scholastic Aptitude Test scores and 80% who were valedictorians. Private and public institutions of higher learning, facing the reality of needing to train graduates for a global economy, are selecting applicants who can not only perform well academically but can also set themselves to an endeavor and succeed in extracurricular activities. After all, college students must select a major that concentrates on a particular field of study; why not select the students who have demonstrated success with that type of focus and dedication?Colleges now acknowledge, based on years of experience, that students who demonstrate success in extracurricular activities which give them real-world skills like critical thinking, oral and written communication, and the ability to organize ideas and present them effectively perform better in college and turn out to be successful alumni who give back generously to their alma mater. What does this mean? According to Lee Stetson, Dean of Admissions at the University of Pennsylvania, "We realized one of the better predicators of success is the ability to dedicate oneself to a task and do it well." But according to the Wall Street Journal’s recent study of top universities and ten years of applicant, admissions, and scholarship data, "not all extracurricular activities are created equal." Two of the surprising findings were that participation in some of the more common sports in high school athletics, soccer, basketball, volleyball, horseback riding, skating, and baseball, did very little for applicants. Unless these students win state or national awards, there does not appear to be any significant benefit from participation in these activities. Second, the Wall Street Journal study noted that "although community service has been widely touted over the past decade as crucial to college admissions, our numbers suggest it matters much less than you might expect."The Wall Street Journal report did specifically highlight a "consistent trend"—one that forensic coaches have known for a long time—that dedicated participation in drama and debate has significantly increased the success rate of college applicants at all schools which track such data. State and national award winners have a 22% to 30% higher acceptance rate at top tier colleges and being captain of the debate team "improved an applicant's chances by more than 60% compared with the rest of the pool," according to the report. This is significantly better than other extracurricular activities that tend to recruit from the same pool of students as forensic teams such as school newspaper reporter (+3%), sports team captain (+5%), class president (+5%), and band (+3%). Even without winning major awards, participation in speech and debate develops valuable skills that colleges are seeking out and that is reflected in the above average acceptance rate (+4%). Colleges and universities today are looking for articulate thinkers and communicators who will become active citizens and leaders of tomorrow.The National Forensic League, with its mission of "Training Youth for Leadership," is one of a handful of national high school organizations which leading colleges use as a "barometer of success." Qualification to NFL Nationals is viewed as a considerable accomplishment with late elimination round success being even more noteworthy. The fact that the NFL is also seen as the national high school speech and debate honor society is even more significant; with the higher degrees of membership and NFL Academic All-American status carrying more weight than ever in college admissions reviews. Schools that are not NFL members are literally cheating their students of the opportunity to receive credit for their training and accomplishments, and those students are at a disadvantage when they apply for college compared to other students who have distinguished themselves as NFL members. The key here is that real-world communication skills must be developed at the league and district levels, which selects qualifiers to NFL Nationals. Superior communication and persuasive skills are essential for success in both the college classroom and professional life.As a former policy and Lincoln-Douglas debater as well as student congress and individual events competitor, I appreciate the different skill sets that each event emphasizes, as well as the shared lessons on research methods and critical thinking skills. As a college professor, I note that my top students are most often former high school debaters who actively participate in class discussions and articulate persuasive arguments both in class and on written assignments. The Ethics, Politics, and Economics (EP&E) major at Yale College is an elite course of study which requires special application prior to the junior year to be admitted into the program. It is often known as the "debate major" because most of the students in the program are former high school debaters and/or members of the Yale debating team who are some of the brightest undergraduates at Yale. It is no surprise that many of my students are entering their senior year of college with multiple employment offers already in hand and quite a few of them already own their own companies. One of my graduating seniors, who is in the process of taking his company public, told me that his debate experience was a critical factor in persuading investors to support his business venture.As a corporate advisor, I see the skills developed in forensics paying rich dividends as I work with talented managers at client companies and on teams with other consultants. Over the years, I have had discussions with many senior executives and managers, nearly all of whom identify effective communication, persuasion, and leadership skills as "absolutely essential" for success and advancement in their respective organizations. Many of these successful business executives, government leaders, and non-profit directors do not directly attribute their graduate degrees to their own achievements but rather they point to the life skills and work ethic learned in high school speech and debate that started them down the road to success. One vice president told me that "my Ivy-League MBA got me my first job here but my forensics experience gave me the tools to be effective which led to my promotion into my present position."From someone who is active in both the academic and professional realms, I have some advice for high school students (and their parents) who are interested in pursuing their studies at a top college or university:First, select an activity based on what you need to develop as a person, not necessarily what might look good on a college application or what your friends are doing. Consider the many benefits derived from participation in speech and debate that can help develop both personal and professional skills.Second, parents should assist their children in selecting an activity as early in their high school career as possible but they must support them for the right reasons. Living vicariously through your children or forcing your children into an activity that is intended primarily to impress friends and college admissions directors will not yield the intended results.Third, pursue your selected activity with true passion and seek to be the very best to the outer limits of your abilities. In the case of speech and debate, it will most likely mean focusing on improving your oral and written communication skills as well as your critical thinking skills. It also means working with your coach as much as possible and even seeking additional training and practice during the summer.Fourth, document your successes and what you have learned. Many colleges will accept portfolios of work where you can demonstrate your intellectual development and progress. Do not merely list on your college application form the forensic awards that you have won but instead discuss in your personal statement or essay how you have developed your intellectual curiosity and enhanced your ability to pursue your academic interests through participation in forensics. How has dedication in forensics made you a better person ready to pursue more advanced intellectual and professional challenges?Finally, keep in mind that colleges have a mission to train future active citizens and leaders. Concentrate on enhancing your passion for speech and debate by developing your communication, work ethic, time management, networking, and social as well as professional skills as your primary objectives. If you develop your abilities in these areas first, competitive success will inevitably follow.The world is changing rapidly and we as Americans must further develop our critical decision-making and communication skills in order to successfully compete in the expanding global economy. In my opinion, there is no better activity that will develop essential academic, professional, and life skills than dedicated involvement in speech and debate. Colleges and employers are actively seeking these skills and when it comes to selecting extracurricular activities, like many other things in life, those savvy high school students who will win admission to the best schools will select quality over quantity.MINH A. LUONG is Assistant Professor in the Ethics, Politics, & Economics Program at Yale University and International Affairs Fellow at the Yale Center for International and Area Studies where he teaches both graduate and senior seminar courses. A sought-after corporate consultant, Professor Luong advises multinational corporations in the financial services, telecommunications, insurance, and professional services fields on human resources, training & development, operations, crisis management, class-action lawsuits, and merger & acquisition (M&A) issues. He continues to be active in the forensic community as he is the volunteer director of the National Debate Education Project, an organization that offers affordable, non-commercialized forensic education seminars across the country. He is member of the Tournament of Champions Advisory Committee and is serving his eighth year as the Director of Lincoln-Douglas debate at the TOC. He has served as Chairperson of the Communications Studies Department at Pinewood College Preparatory School (CA), Director of Debate at San Francisco State University, and Director of Forensics at the University of California at Berkeley. Minh is the only person to have won the National Collegiate Lincoln-Douglas Debate Championship title both as a competitor and coach. He serves as the Academic Director and Senior Instructor at the National Debate Forum held at the University of Minnesota and previously served as Curriculum Director at the Stanford, Berkeley, and Austin National Forensic Institutes. Professor Luong can be reached at his National Debate Education Project address at [email protected] of ForensicsMeet Tommie LindseyMeet the StudentsGet Involved For TeachersFor ParentsThe FilmContact UsHome©2002 Mac & Ava Productions. All rights reserved.

I would concur with Ahmad Shah Massoud. He was more feared by the Taliban and Al-Qaeda than they feared the US. This was because they readily took on the US with the 911 attack knowing that the attack would be traced back to them but so feared Massoud's ability to defeat them, backed by the angry US, that they had him assassinated by suicide bombers BEFORE 911.Two Al-Qaeda followers posing as news reporters with a bomb in the camera blew him up two days before 911. They knew that he had the means, ability and respect of his countrymen to destroy them with US backing. No one else in Afghanistan had that level of respect.His reputation as a Mujahdeen commander was one of lore. He fought alongside his men and was effective in causing the Soviets to depart Afghanistan, thus his title, 'The Lion'. After the departure of the Soviets and the Communist government, his troops defended the capital against all of Al-Qaeda and the Taliban in his efforts to replace the Communist government with a moderate one.Here is a passage from Wikipedia:Ahmad Shah Massoud (Dari Persian: احمد شاه مسعود;[1] September 2, 1953 – September 9, 2001) was an Afghan political and military leader, who was a powerful military commander during the resistance against the Soviet occupation between 1979 and 1989 and in the following years of civil war. He was assassinated on September 9, 2001.Massoud came from an ethnic Tajik, Sunni Muslim background in the Panjshir valley of northern Afghanistan. He began studying engineering at Polytechnical University of Kabul in the 1970s, where he became involved with fundamentalist Muslim anti-communist movements around Burhanuddin Rabbani, a leading Islamist. He was part of a Pakistan-backed failed rebellion against Mohammed Daoud Khan's government. After the Soviet occupation of 1979, his role as an insurgent leader earned him the nickname of "Lion of Panjshir" (شیر پنجشیر) among his followers. In 1992, after he disturbed the UN plan to install an interim government to replace that of President Mohammad Najibullah, he was appointed as the minister of defense through the Peshawar Accord, a peace and power-sharing agreement, in the post-communist Islamic State of Afghanistan. His militia fought to defend the capital against militias led by Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, Abdul Rasul Sayyaf, Abdul Ali Mazari, Abdul Rashid Dostum and eventually the Taliban, who started to lay siege to the capital in January 1995 after the city had seen fierce fighting; at least 60,000 civilians were killed, many more injured, public property, government offices and the Kabul Museum had been looted, and two thirds of the population had fled the city.Following the rise of the Taliban in 1996, Massoud, who rejected the Taliban's fundamentalist interpretation of Islam, returned to armed opposition until he eventually fled to Kulob, Tajikistan, destroying the Salang Tunnel on his way north. He became the military and political leader of the United Islamic Front for the Salvation of Afghanistan (also known in the West as the Northern Alliance).He was assassinated, at the instigation of al-Qaeda, in a suicide bombing on September 9, 2001, just two days before the September 11 attacks in the United States which led to the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation invading Afghanistan, allying with Massoud's forces.​​He was considered one of the most feared Mujahdeen leaders fighting the Soviets during their occupation of Afghanistan. He was a bona fide 'bad ass.' How many other generals would the enemy put out a hit squad to assassinate BEFORE a war was declared? How many other generals would have a nickname like 'The Lion'?Here is a link to an article written by a friend of his a couple years ago. Now you see why he was 'The Lion'.http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2014/09/afghanistan-shadow-ahmad-shah-mas-2014997826874331.htmlEDIT: several folks asked about his accomplishments. He was recognized as the most powerful and singular force to cause the Soviet Union to leave and the downfall of the communist government in Afghanistan. See BELOW:Following the 1979 Soviet invasion and occupation of Afghanistan, Massoud devised a strategic plan for expelling the invaders and overthrowing the communist regime. The first task was to establish a popularly based resistance force that had the loyalty of the people. The second phase was "active defense" of the Panjshir stronghold, while carrying out asymmetric warfare. In the third phase, the "strategic offensive", Massoud's forces would gain control of large parts of Northern Afghanistan. The fourth phase was the "general application" of Massoud's principles to the whole country, and the defeat of the Afghan communist government.From the start of the war, Massoud's mujahideen attacked the occupying Soviet forces, ambushing Soviet and Afghan communist convoys travelling through the Salang Pass, and causing fuel shortages in Kabul. The Soviets mounted a series of offensives against the Panjshir. Between 1980 and 1985, these offensives were conducted twice a year. Despite engaging more men and hardware on each occasion, the Soviets were unable to defeat Massoud's forces. In 1982, the Soviets began deploying major combat units in the Panjshir, numbering up to 30,000 men. Massoud pulled his troops back into subsidiary valleys, where they occupied fortified positions. When the Soviet columns advanced onto these positions, they fell into ambushes. When the Soviets withdrew, Afghan army garrisons took over their positions. Massoud and his mujahideen forces attacked and recaptured them one by one.In 1983, the Soviets offered Massoud a temporary truce, which he accepted in order to rebuild his own forces and give the civilian population a break from Soviet attacks. He put the respite to good use. In this time he created the Shura-e Nazar (Supervisory Council), which subsequently united 130 commanders from 12 Afghan provinces in their fight against the Soviet army. This council existed outside the Peshawar parties, which were prone to internecine rivalry and bickering, and served to smooth out differences between resistance groups, due to political and ethnic divisions. It was the predecessor of what could have become a unified Islamic Afghan army.Relations with the party headquarters in Peshawar were often strained, as Rabbani insisted on giving Massoud no more weapons and supplies than to other Jamiat commanders, even those who did little fighting. To compensate for this deficiency, Massoud relied on revenues drawn from exports of emeralds and lapis lazuli, that are traditionally exploited in Northern Afghanistan.To organize support for the mujahideen, Massoud established an administrative system that enforced law and order (nazm) in areas under his control. The Panjshir was divided into 22 bases (qarargah) governed by a military commander and a civilian administrator, and each had a judge, a prosecutor and a public defender. 'Massoud's Massoud' were implemented by different committees: an economic committee was charged with funding the war effort. The health committee provided health services, assisted by volunteers from foreign humanitarian non-governmental organizations, such as Aide médicale internationale. An education committee was charged with the training of the military and administrative cadre. A culture committee and a judiciary committee were also created.This expansion prompted Babrak Karmal to demand that the Red Army resume their offensives, in order to crush the Panjshir groups. However, Massoud had received warning of the attack through his intelligence agents in the government and he evacuated all 130,000 inhabitants from the valley into the Hindukush mountains, leaving the Soviet bombings to fall on empty ground and the Soviet battalions to face the mountains.With the defeat of the Soviet-Afghan attacks, Massoud carried out the next phase of his strategic plan, expanding the resistance movement and liberating the northern provinces of Afghanistan. In August 1986, he captured Farkhar in Takhar Province. In November 1986, his forces overran the headquarters of the government's 20th division at Nahrin in Baghlan Province, scoring an important victory for the resistance. This expansion was also carried out through diplomatic means, as more mujahideen commanders were persuaded to adopt the Panjshir military system.Despite almost constant attacks by the Red Army and the Afghan army, Massoud increased his military strength. Starting in 1980 with a force of less than 1,000 ill-equipped guerrillas, the Panjshir valley mujahideen grew to a 5,000-strong force by 1984. After expanding his influence outside the valley, Massoud increased his resistance forces to 13,000 fighters by 1989. These forces were divided into different types of units: the locals (mahalli) were tasked with static defense of villages and fortified positions. The best of the mahalli were formed into units called grup-i zarbati (shock troops), semi-mobile groups that acted as reserve forces for the defense of several strongholds. A different type of unit was the mobile group (grup-i-mutaharek), a lightly equipped commando-like formation numbering 33 men, whose mission was to carry out hit-and-run attacks outside the Panjshir, sometimes as far as 100 km from their base. These men were professional soldiers, well-paid and trained, and, from 1983 on, they provided an effective strike force against government outposts. Uniquely among the mujahideen, these groups wore uniforms, and their use of the pakul made this headwear emblematic of the Afghan resistance.Massoud's military organization was an effective compromise between the traditional Afghan method of warfare and the modern principles of guerrilla warfare which he had learned from the works of Mao Zedong and Che Guevara.His forces were considered the most effective of all the various Afghan resistance movements.The United States provided Massoud with comparatively less support than other factions.[35] Part of the reason was that it permitted its funding and arms distribution to be administered by Pakistan, which favored the rival mujahideen leader Gulbuddin Hekmatyar. In an interview, Massoud said, "We thought the CIA knew everything. But they didn't. They supported some bad people [meaning Hekmatyar]."[citation needed] Primary advocates for supporting Massoud were the US State Department's Edmund McWilliams and Peter Tomsen, who were on the ground in Afghanistan and Pakistan. Others included two Heritage Foundation foreign policy analysts, Michael Johns and James A. Phillips, both of whom championed Massoud as the Afghan resistance leader most worthy of U.S. support under the Reagan Doctrine. Thousands of foreign Islamic volunteers entered Afghanistan to fight with the mujahideen against the Soviet troops.The Soviet army and the Afghan communist army were mainly defeated by Massoud and his mujahideen in numerous small engagements between 1984 and 1988. In 1989, after describing the Soviet Union's military engagement in Afghanistan "a bleeding wound", Soviet General Secretary Mikhail Gorbachev began a withdrawal of Soviet troops from the nation. On February 15, 1989, in what was depicted as an improbable victory for the mujahideen, the last Soviet soldier left the nation.Ahmad Shah Massoud