PURPOSE

The Julia Burke Foundation has established The Julia Burke Award to recognize the high school policy debater who most closely upholds the combination of characteristics that Julia displayed in her love for the activity. These qualities include excellence in and passion for debate, a commitment to helping others, love and respect for the policy debate community and dedication to maintaining friendships despite the pressures of competition. Julia was lost October 30, 1998 following an automobile accident.

Julia was a young woman of substance, and always filled her life with activities. In addition to being a debater, she was the coxswain for a championship men’s crew team, had been a competitive figure skater for five years, played soccer for nine years, was on a swim team for three years, was in Girl Scouts for five years, played the flute for seven years, and was an altar server at her church for six years. She was a junior at The College Preparatory School in Oakland, California where she debated, contributed photography for the yearbook, and made many friends.

At Julia’s service, Ryan Mills, her debate coach, said it well: “It suddenly became so obvious to me that she was the one who had it right all along. The importance of people, not things; your integrity, not your successes; your contributions, not your awards.”

THE AWARD

The annual award will be presented at the Tournament of Champions (TOC), and will include:

• A perpetual trophy in the shape of a flame, which is inscribed, “THE JULIA BURKE FLAME FOR CHARACTER AND EXCELLENCE IN NATIONAL HIGH SCHOOL POLICY DEBATE”;
• A smaller replica of the perpetual trophy, to be given to the recipient;
• A $1,000 college scholarship to the recipient; and
  
• A $1,000 donation to the charity chosen by the award recipient.

NOMINATION AND SELECTION PROCESS

Any policy debater who is eligible, or expected to be eligible, to compete in the TOC may be nominated for the award. Policy debaters, coaches and judges are invited to nominate one individual per person by April 1st. Nominations should include the name and school of the nominee, the reasons for the nomination preferably including examples and anecdotes, and the identity of the person submitting the nomination including his/her name, affiliation with the debate community (debater, coach or judge), and school affiliation. The nomination may be submitted to The Julia Burke Award Committee by either of the following methods:

             Use the Online Nomination Form at the bottom of this page
             --Or--
             Send an email to: TOC-nomination@JuliaBurkeFoundation.org

The finalists will be determined by the Julia Burke Award Committee, composed of nationally active past and present high school policy debate coaches and a representative of The Julia Burke Foundation, as follows: Dr. David Glass, Edgemont High School, Scarsdale, New York; Ms. Lexy Green, Director of Forensics, The College Preparatory School, Oakland, California; Mr. Ryan Mills, Past Director of Forensics, The College Preparatory School, Oakland, California; Mr. Alex Pritchard, Director of Forensics, Westwood High School, Austin Texas; Ms. Tara Tate, Director of Debate, Glenbrook South High School, Glenview, Illinois; and Mr. Eric Zampol, Board of Directors of The Julia Burke Foundation, Woodward Academy ’98, Dartmouth College ’02.

Policy debaters attending the Tournament of Champions, and their coaches (one coach per school), will determine the award recipient by majority vote. Ballots will be distributed at TOC registration.

*For more information about The Julia Burke Foundation feel free to take a look around our site.