Ciara Mitchell

Talented Debater Forms One Half of Top Breaking Team at European Championships

This summer, Class of 2016 Former Pupil, Ciara Mitchell, represented the London School of Economics to become the top ranked team (and 4th best individual speaker) at the European Universities Debating Championship.

This came after her success at the same Championship in 2018, held in Serbia, in which she finished as runner up in the Grand Final. It also comes after a series of achievements throughout her time at university, including winning multiple competitions across Europe; ranking among the top 32 teams globally at the World Universities Debating Championship in South Africa; and finishing amongst the top 10 speakers at both the Oxford and Cambridge Intervarsity tournaments, which are among the largest and most prestigious in the world. The European Championships are the largest debating tournament in Europe and see around 300 of the top teams from all over the continent face off against each other over twelve rounds of fiercely competitive debate. This year, the Championship was planned to take place in Astana, Kazakhstan (much like Eurovision, the debate community’s definition of Europe is quite expansive!) yet due to Covid-19, was held online. This year was particularly special for HSD, as Ivan Kapelyukh – Class of 2017 – joined Ciara in the rankings as the 7th best team in Europe whilst representing Imperial College London. Furthermore, Steven Roy – also Class of 2017 – served as Tournament Director and was instrumental to designing the software which facilitated the successful running of the first ever online edition. Ciara says: “My interest in debating was first sparked in 2011, when the World Schools Debating Championship was hosted right here in Dundee by our very own Irene McGrath. I volunteered to help out with the organisation and was lucky enough to have the opportunity to watch some debates in the process. I was awestruck by the clarity and conviction with which the speakers were able to artfully express themselves; fascinated by the challenge of having to defend a random point-of-view on a completely alien topic with limited preparation time; and excited by the idea of getting to debate against teams from different corners of the world. From then I knew that debating was something that I was desperate to pursue!

“The skills I was lucky enough to develop from this hobby massively enhanced my time at university. Debating trained me to critically analyse the world around me, and competing internationally opened my eyes to different cultures, politics and values. Most importantly, debating taught me to have confidence in myself and gave me the tools to speak out on important issues.”

After leaving school, Ciara completed a degree in International Social and Public Policy and has recently just started working as a Policy Adviser in HM Treasury. Of her further studies, Ciara says: “It was debating that first sparked my love for public policy, and I am very doubtful that I would have developed the same career ambitions had it not been for all of those weekends as a teenager driving all over the country to shout about banning school uniform! Most of all, I am incredibly indebted to HSD and especially Irene McGrath for the support, mentorship and wisdom which she shared with me constantly over six years. She has expertly coached generations of HSD debaters, many of whom have been selected to represent Scotland at World Championships across the globe, and I am very grateful for the opportunity to have been included among them. If anyone at school is considering trying out debating, my advice is don’t hesitate and go for it!” You can watch an interview with Ciara, and her debate partner Hamza Tariq Chaudhry, as they discuss ranking top at the European Championships 2020 here: bit.ly/34yCNxk

Talking All Things Tech

Leaving the High School of Dundee in 2017, FP Steven Roy has since studied Computer Science at Durham University and has gone on to forge a very successful career. In this Q&A, Steven discusses the importance of technology in today’s modern world and especially in light of the Covid-19 pandemic.

After leaving HSD, you went on to study Computer Science at Durham University, I wonder if you could tell us a little about where your interest in this field stemmed from? I think I’ve always had an interest in computers and the systems that they support – by building websites and running little services – from a young age. Given how prevalent computers and data are in our everyday lives, taking a look behind the curtain and understanding the way that these normally hidden and subtly complex pieces of infrastructure interact and are constructed grants a whole new perspective on simple everyday activities. Were there any teachers who were inspirational to you, who may have helped you on your path to study Computer Science? And were you part of any extra-curricular activities that aided in your decision to study this field at university? There were a lot of teachers who contributed significantly to me finding my feet and enabling me to achieve at University but two stand out above all – David Smith and Irene McGrath. David was always pushing into extra-curricular exploration of the subject in ways that continue to pay dividends even today by giving me his time after school every Monday to teach a small group of us how to develop mobile apps – something that I’ve since used in internships and throughout my University career. Irene dedicated nearly every weekend of the school year taking us to debating competitions across the country and, in my final year, the world. There’s not an immediately obvious connection between computer science and debating, and computer science is not a field known for its extroverts. However, being a computer scientist comfortable with standing in front of a crowd to explain technical concepts is definitely a rarity in the department and a skill I possess only because of Irene.

You have now begun a career within the Computer Science field, so you must have quite a lot of insight into the importance of technology within our modern world – particularly in light of the coronavirus pandemic. How do you see technology influencing the future of the working world going forwards?

Steven Roy, far right Prior to the pandemic, the world was already making a shift towards flexible working and integrating technology into everyday working life. As has been the case throughout history, in times of intense struggle and crisis we see innovation being rapidly accelerated and integrated throughout society. More generally speaking, I think technology will empower a greater degree of flexible working so that the work-life balance allows for greater prioritisation of life outside of work. How did you personally adapt to working from home during lockdown? For me, the actual working was pretty much identical – a desk with screens and a keyboard – the only lacking aspect was the social interactions with other people. I think I tended towards more isolationist working – if I had an issue, at the start of lockdown I’d spend more time trying to fix it on my own than I would have done in an office but as the months progressed I made a specific effort to focus on trying to generate as much of the social office atmosphere as I can with meetings – calling people over Zoom to debug a problem or discuss possible solutions as if they were in office with me. What do you see future classrooms in a school environment looking like? Do you think there will be any changes in the way that pupils learn? The changes to the classroom environment have already been in the pipeline across the sector for some time – from the introduction of iPads and computers into daily lessons to the paradigmatic shift from information retention to information retrieval and verification. Children have always been fantastically early adopters of technology and given the global increase in technological dependency there will be a greater requirement in schools to prepare children for the applications of modern data-driven technology. For example, teaching children the fundamentals of programming empowers them regardless of their career choices because being able to write Excel/Word macros allows for tenfold increases in productivity. Finally, a more personal question. Now that you have finished university and have your feet on the career ladder, where do you see yourself in 10 years’ time? That’s a difficult one, I think in 10 years I’d like to have fully cradled a start-up and be working on more directly personal projects in quantitative finance – possibly exploring my thesis implementation of how social media data can be mined for sentiment and consequently be used as a stock market indicator.