Humans of AFS: From Podium to Classroom

Ashley Cleary currently serves as History Department Chair and Upper School history teacher at Abington Friends School in Jenkintown, PA.  Before teaching historical content through creating engaging lessons she was a member for two consecutive years of Bates College debate club in Lewiston, Maine.  

I asked what inspired Cleary to join the debate club in college and how her experience shaped her communication or critical thinking skills.

Cleary said, “I was really interested in the competitive nature of it, thinking about improving my skills through this very fleshed out system that was called the debate style. I joined my freshman year and I ended up doing 2 years on debate, and I feel like I gained a lot of experience in thinking about how to structure arguments, particularly around when you do debate.”

Cleary said, “Often you debate from a perspective that you might not agree with. I felt like it really helped me develop just thinking skills around how to think about argument as a separate thing than my opinion.” 

Cleary’s college is closely linked to the AFS experience, with a club fair to sign up for clubs you are interested in. While reminiscing, Cleary described a particularly challenging debate topic they encountered and how their team effectively prepared for it.

They said, “I remember that my first college competition debate was about Angela Merkel and whether or not she was an effective leader in Germany. It was something I had no background knowledge on and we only had a short time to prepare! It made me realize that debate is much more about constructing an argument and that content knowledge is very helpful, but not everything.” 

Although Cleary enjoyed her experience as a member of debate, she found some flaws in the diversity of her peers’ backgrounds because it was a white male dominated club at Bates. She wished it fostered a bit more inclusivity and support for members with different experience levels or perspectives. 

When asked about what ways being part of the debate club influenced their career and life goals, Cleary said, “It influenced my confidence and being able to articulate my opinions through writing, arguing, and contrasting. Like a lot of people from the debate went on to be lawyers— that wasn’t me. However, being able to talk and speak in front of people, particularly in a time of AI and all these technological changes [is valuable]. Like all you really have is yourself now.”

Cleary said, “Like and we used to differentiate that and grow skills…these skills that you can’t outsource to a robot are so important. I think anybody who’s able to engage with debate in any capacity can really get a lot of skills that will help them in the long run in which path they choose.”

As the previous faculty advisor of AFS’s first debate club, Cleary said, “The clerks do a phenomenal job of making the space what it really should be, which is like an accepting and welcoming space where you can come and you can engage at any level. They have people who are more involved and they have people who might just come for a fun time. And I really do fundamentally [think] that’s how it should be.”

Ella Hawkins ’26, co-clerk of debate club, said, “As our previous faculty advisor, Cleary was quite engaged. She was educated on the topic and wanted to be involved and help us. I appreciated how she encouraged us to boost engagement and try to keep our members interested [in] the best way possible. She never discouraged us from having a meeting or doing an event.” 

In conclusion, the clerks of debate club and Cleary encourage you to join because it is critical for women and people who do not identify as white to find their voices in this field.