Brooklyn Debate League Fundraiser

Brooklyn Debate League ("BDL") is a nonprofit organization co-founded by K.M. ("DiCo") DiColandrea and their former student Jonathan Conyers. DiCo, who was a state and national finalist in high school, spent twelve years building Speech & Debate teams in low-income NYC public schools. Their students gained fame on the national circuit (including winning Harvard, UPenn, Columbia, Villiger, States) and in the national news (including being featured on Time Magazine, MSNBC, and Huffington Post).

After a post about Jonathan went viral on Humans of New York in May 2022, BDL raised over $1.3 million in 48 hours. Since then, BDL has been featured on multiple platforms including The Kelly Clarkson Show and on Malcolm Gladwell's podcast series.

BDL's mission is to make Speech & Debate more accessible to low-income students in NYC. Its most important current initiative includes intensive partnerships with six low-income public schools building debate teams from scratch. BDL prioritizes developing the capacity of student leaders and faculty coaches so that within three years, the teams have the capacity to thrive without BDL's intensive support.

Host or Publisher Brooklyn Debate League