UNS — A proud achievement was obtained by Universitas Sebelas Maret (UNS) Surakarta students in Kalimantan Open Debate (Kode) 2020 held on Saturday – Sunday (19 – 20/9/2020). In the competition, two UNS students are Sekar Khoiri Nismara from Civil Engineering Program and Steven Leonard from Medicine Education Program won the first position in the Novice Champion category in Kode 2020. Sekar also won the Novice Final Best Speaker in the competition. The English debate competition was conducted online through Zoom Cloud Meeting. The competition started from the preliminary round, followed by an elimination round, and closed with the grand final round.
Sekar admitted that she did not think that she can win the Kode 2020 competition. “I and Steven are a beginner in varsity debate; thus, we have many shortcomings and need to learn more, this competition is a mean for us to learn. We did not expect to become novice champion in this competition, because we expect to gain experience and exposure debate varsity,” Sekar stated in a communication with uns.ac.id team on Thursday (24/9/2020).
Under the supervision of Wuji Anggraini, S.S., M.Pd., Sekar and Steven participated in Kode 2020 as a training and preparation for National University Debating Championship (NUDC) as the representatives from UNS. They have a gradual preparation because the team was formed at the end of July as the representatives from UNS. In the Kode 2020 competition, Sekar and Steven met competition from all over Indonesia. They learn more about how to develop a good argument and the correct way of having a debate. They are also active in Student English Forum (SEF) which focuses on public speaking and debate. Sekar and Steven learned from SEF and Sekar hopes that she and Steven can give their best efforts in the NUDC and established as debaters. Humas UNS
Reporter: Bayu Aji Prasetya
Editor: Dwi Hastuti