Upper school speech and debate teacher Greg Achten was elected to the board of the National Debate Coaches Association (NDCA) for the October 2022 to 2025 term following his involvement in the association itself and his years of community service.

Achten was first introduced to debate as a ninth grader in high school in 1986 and competed for his high school and college. After receiving a master’s degree in Communication Studies and Rhetoric at Kansas State University, Achten decided to become a teacher and coached debate at the college level before looking for a new challenge. He coached college debate for 14 years, first for eight years at Pepperdine University and then later at the University of California, Berkeley for six years before joining the upper school. This year marks his thirteenth year working with Harker students as a middle and upper school Speech and Debate teacher.

“This job of Harker came open,” Achten said. “And I knew about Harker because [their team] attended the UC Berkeley debate tournament for many, many years, when I was running that tournament, and so I knew good things about the program and good things about the school. I came here, got interviewed and really fell in love with the school and the program, and I’ve been very happy here ever since.”

Achten believes participating in speech and debate helps students engage in academic learning in situations that they otherwise would not have experienced.

“The things that we talk about in debate and learn about in debate, by and large, are not covered in other classes,” Achten said. “We talk about contemporary things; for example, we talk about philosophy, both classical and continental.”

Achten finds that his students tend to be more driven with the tangible goals that debate sets. Debate encourages healthy competition by providing a platform for individuals to express their ideas and perspectives while also challenging and evaluating the ideas of others.

“I think the competitive outlet is really a motivator for a lot of students,” Achten said. “I think that that competitive drive really pushes students to engage and learn in a way that is different from their other classes, so I think that it is an excellent augment to their other academic classes.”

The NDCA is a service organization that serves as a professional development organization for coaches, providing resources to help them become better coaches through the guidance of the more experienced coaches. It also provides curricular materials and mentorship programs for new and younger coaches and is dedicated to supporting new debate programs and also hosts one of the national debate championships.

“Our ultimate vision is to provide opportunities for high school coaches to strengthen their abilities in order to provide stronger learning environments for their students,” the NDCA website says. “This vision and support comes in many concrete and diverse forms: sharing best practices in coaching and teaching; fostering curriculum development; compiling coaching resources; creation of the Open Evidence Project;  providing professional development opportunities; and promotion of regional debate.”

The NDCA also runs a national championship in debate tournaments, and Achten previously facilitated running large tournaments, such as the UC Berkeley tournament, for eight years. In addition, he helped the organization with hosting a national coach development conference, which featured a variety of presentations covering a range of topics, from community building to novice retention as well as discussions led by panelists. Achten was one of the members of NDCA that founded the conference, and was partially interested in joining the board to help with the conference again.

With his position on the NDCA Board, Achten hopes to utilize his past experience in the organization to help them find a firmer footing, especially in hosting their national tournament. After the pandemic, it was more difficult for schools to host large numbers of attendees for tournaments.

“The main things that I hope to achieve are just to provide some element of continuity and stability,” Achten said. “One of the things the organization has struggled with in the post-COVID era is finding hosts for the national tournament — that was something that I used to work with the organization on, and I think that’s an area where I could really help.”

Achten’s extensive history of volunteering and community service also helped him throughout his coaching career. He began when he was a college debate coach, at one point being the president of one of the two national debate organizations, later serving as the treasurer of that organization.

“I want to make debate a more open and inclusive and kind of awesome place for students to come together and express their ideas,” Achten said. “That’s what I would like. [The debate coaches at Harker] all share the same vision of having a vibrant community where we all appreciate each other’s work.”