Dr. Jacques founded Early Scholars Speech & Debate In 2014 with a commitment to driving innovation. She attributes her business acumen to her training in the University of Pennsylvania, and the merging of health impacts were reinforced as part of her secondary doctorate at Teachers College, Columbia University where she qualifies the socioemotional impacts of speech and debate programs in grade school students. She lives in Bayside with her husband and their three children.
At the Early Scholars Speech & Debate, I design programs and implement systems that are at the intersection of health, education and business.
Early Scholars is a great environment for students who are reticent of public speaking. Grounded on the premise that public speaking skills can be shaped, we do not seek to admit accelerated learners, rather we are committed to Creating Great Debaters.
My philosophy is simple: As global citizens, every student should have the means to travel the world. Speech and Debate offers that limitless passport! It endows students with the experiences, histories, norms and ideologies of others, while simultaneously giving them the tools to effectively explain the world and shape their personal truths. I view curriculum development as an evolutionary process, one that requires constant scaffolding and iterations to make speech and debate competencies attainable by all.
As you learn more about Early Scholars Speech and Debate, we hope our passion is readily apparent. Please schedule an appointment with our debate coordinator, Erela Datuowei, to learn more.
Sincerely,
Erin Jacques
Founder & CEO
Early Scholars Speech & Debate (ESSD) is a subsidiary company of Early Scholars, Inc., an out of school enrichment company founded in 2012 by husband and wife duo, Dr. Erin Jacques and Mr. Jean-Claude Jacques. With a focus on academic and socio-emotional excellence, Early Scholars Speech & Debate Society was launched in 2014 with a single goal: to help students become real, effective world communicators; to persuasively express their ideas and successfully navigate interpersonal relationships.
By 2015, ESSD elementary debaters won a top sweepstakes honor in Public Forum, a tournament held by the largest citywide debate league in the nation. In May of 2016, ESSD began competing in the Parliamentary division and won 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place honors; the Early Scholars Debate Team was named the Top Elementary Parliamentary and Public Forum Debaters in New York City. At the request of the parent community whose children were graduating, in the summer of 2018 ESSD began training students for the NYCUDL Middle School Public Forum tournaments. From the start, our program was a two pronged approach where students received a combination of online courses and onsite trainings from top debate coaches. We hand pick and select the most talented debate coaches from top university debate clubs in the US.
Over the course of the 2018- 2019 season, ESSD debaters had a series of prodigious individual and team victories, culminating in being named the 2nd place overall best team in NYC.
After a summer of using their talents to train and compete in Innovation Pitch Competitions in their community, ESSD debaters returned to debate well equipped. In September of 2020, ESSD debaters won 1st place team and 1st and 2nd place speaker awards as they debated resolved: The European Union should join the Belt and Road Initiative. Local and regional tournaments were no longer enough. ESSD began attending National Tournaments, earning a winning record at Harvard’s National Invitational Tournament, and winning 1st and 2nd place speaker awards at Lakeland’s Westchester Classic.
Our Mission: At Early Scholars, we give students the confidence to assert themselves. We use public-speaking training as a tool to promote advocacy and socio-emotional development.
Our aim is to take the guesswork out of debate. By scaffolding the content and developing easy to use frameworks, we not only accelerate students’ growth but we make debate accessible for all. We don’t seek great debaters; Early Scholars Speech & Debate is Where Great Debaters are Made!
Our teaching approach is not cemented in stone, rather it’s an evolutionary process that uses the Early Scholars Rotational model as a curriculum guide.
As the Early Scholars Speech & Debate Coordinator, Erela Datuowei will likely be your first point of contact. Erela is a DICE fellow who was a Posse Scholar Finalist. Erela attended Townsend Harris HS where she was a NYC championship winner in indoor and outdoor track, and a strategist for the Republican Candidate Election Simulation. As a University of Southern California (USC) junior, she is pursuing a double major in Health & Human Sciences and French with a concentration in community organizing and organizational structure.
As the Lead Debate Topic Analyst & Speech Coach, Adam Chase, attended high school at Forsyth Country Day, where he captained the North Carolina state mock trial team to a national championship win, ran a statewide legal debate program, and graduated as valedictorian. He went on to attend Yale University, graduating cum laude, with distinction in his major, and with special commendation for his thesis, which was written on the philosophy and cognitive science of rhetoric. At Yale, he was awarded the Buck-Jackson and David C. DeForest Prizes for public speaking, and was a member of the Yale Mock Trial Association, ranked as the number one legal debate program in the nation all four years in which he competed. With that team, he won two national division titles, two All-American distinctions, was the top-scoring individual competitor in two national final rounds. Professionally, he has written speeches for presidential candidates, Fortune 500 CEOs, Olympic gold medalists, and Emmy-winning actors, written audio dramas with James Patterson and Kelly Ripa, written educational YouTube videos seen by over 30 million people, and published comedy under his own name in The New Yorker.
Margarita Artoglou won two New York State titles, came in 3rd place at the NSDA Championship tournament, and qualified to the Tournament of Champions while a member of Bronx HS of Science’s Debate team. She placed 1st at Lakeland Westchester Classic’s National Tournament, and in 2014 she was recruited by her alma mater to coach their debate team. Under her leadership, Bronx Science was ranked as the #1 High School Debate Team in the country. As a NY 1 News intern and the Managing Editor of The Fordham University newspaper, Margarita gained experience in print and broadcast journalism, as well as PR and marketing.
Charlie Barton competed in extemporaneous speaking for four years at Regis High School in New York City before continuing on to study economics and compete in parliamentary debate at Yale University. In high school he was the New York state champion and placed 4th in international extemp at the 2016 National Speech and Debate Championship. At Yale he was the fifth speaker in the country and a finalist at the 2018 US Universities Debating Championship. He ranked as the top sophomore team in the world at the 2018 World Universities Debating Championship and finished in the top 32 of the 2019 World Championship.
Ryan Eppolito attends Columbia University where he majors in Mathematics and Philosophy with a concentration in Economics. He spent the summer of 2017 in China coaching and designing curriculum for LearningLeaders; his teams placed 1st and 2nd in the Chinese National Debate Championships and 1st and 3rd in the Asian Parliamentary Championships. He was the Prime Minister and Leader of Opposition for the Columbia University debate team. When Ryan is not working, he can be found sailing for the Columbia University sailing team.
Julio Cordero was the co-founder and captain of the Public Forum debate team at Leadership & Public Service High School. He was a two time qualifier, reaching octafinals at the Tournament of Champions, double octofinals at Harvard’s National Forensic Tournament, semi-finals at Lakeland’s National Tournament twice, and ranked 5th in NYC. Julio was a nominated Presidential Scholar by the National Association Debate League. He placed in the top team at the Coolidge Cup Debate Invitational, and was one of twelve members of Team USA, a Worlds division competitive development team. Julio views the time he spends with the Early Scholars speech & debate team a philanthropic pursuit.
Arielle Gallegos was awarded the NYCUDL Debater of the Year in Public Forum, honored with the City’s Council Citation, and named the Watson Fellowship finalist. As a socialpreneur, Arielle is the co-founder and Executive Director of Beyond the Margins, an education startup focused on supporting students from “middle school deserts.” She was the Zahn Social Impact Grand Prize winner, an innovation pitch seed funding award. Arielle ranked 1st place at the Citi Foundation Championship, semi-finaled at the UDL City Tournament, and was the Kirkland & Ellis National Qualifier finalist.
Adejoke Mason was the founder and captain of the debate team at North Atlanta High School. She was ranked 3rd in Georgia her junior and senior year and reached finals over 15 times during her high school career. Adejoke was also a four time Nationals qualifier, placing in the top 50 nationally in Lincoln Douglas Debate. As an active policy debater at New York University, Adejoke has reached elimination rounds at numerous tournaments, placing first at the Texas Swings and the Rutgers Invitational. She has also coached young debaters to reach semifinals and finals at tournaments such as UPenn and Harvard.
Jayanne Forrest ranked 3rd place in the state of Florida In Policy debate. In high school, she debated in Lincoln-Douglas and Policy debate for 4 years and was recognized as a UniqueLink Senior Scholar. Jayanne currently attends Columbia University as a pre-med student majoring in African American and African Diaspora studies, and minoring in Biology. During her high school career she won 1st place at Harvard National in LD (JV), won 1st place at Blue Key National in Policy, qualified to NSDA Nationals in Policy Debate, earned a bid to the Tournament of Champions in LD, and finaled at the Sunvitational National debate tournament.
On March 14th, prior to the announcement that New York City public schools would close to mitigate the effects of COVID-19, Early Scholars Speech & Debate transitioned their Saturday coaching sessions to a Distance Learning Plan. Since Early Scholars has been offering their weekly debate sessions online since 2018, the transition to conduct all sessions utilizing the various remote-learning platforms, Google apps and Zoom, was smooth.
Recommendations: We encourage everyone to adhere to social distancing guidelines, to stay in doors, and to remain informed using credible medical resources (CDC, NYC.gov, WHO, DOE, JHU).
