GFD Welcomes Jordana Sternberg to Georgia Debate!

Posted by Jeffrey Miller

July 12, 2008

georgiaforensics is proud to continue its summer of introduction by welcoming new Pace Academy coach, Jordana Sternberg to the community. In May of 2008, Pace Academy made it official and named her the new Assistant Coach. She will be teaching debate and some other classes at the middle school campus.

Jordana Sternberg marks the second Lexington High School connection in this summer’s series. She debated for Lexington High School and then for Wake Forest University. She says, “I debated…several generations back — Jon Sharp, Mike Hester, and David Heidt were part of my debate generation, for reference.” Although this is her first official post as a debate coach, she worked as a volunteer with debaters from Henry W. Grady High School in 2005-06 and Riverwood High School in 2004-05. She is an attorney and has been practicing law for the past ten years. For more information on her, you can visit her law site.

I was fortunate enough to sit down (electronically, of course) with her to ask a few questions.

JM: Hi and welcome to the third part of the “Georgiaforensics- welcoming new coaches to the peach state,” series. Thank you for your time and energy you will spend on this interview. First, a background clarification, what type of law do you do?

JS: Business litigation — generally that means I have represented businesses in disputes against other businesses and defended businesses against claims brought by individuals. For the past eight years I have worked for a firm called Jones Day, which is one of the largest law firms in the world — it represents more than half the Fortune 500. Working for such a large firm gave me some great opportunities and interesting experiences, and I enjoyed it. The skills we learn in debate really translate perfectly for the practice of law, except you often find yourself talking too fast! I’m still at the firm through July, so you can see more details in my online bio at www.jonesday.com/jrsternberg.

JM: Since you’ve been a lawyer for so long, what made you finally decide to settle down and coach at Pace?
JS: Well, anyone who knows me knows I have never been able to get debate out of my blood, but the bottom line is that I wanted to have more time and attention for my daughter, who is almost two years old now. Of course debate is hard work and long hours too, but besides the fact that working with kids is so much more fun (and far more rewarding) than a desk job, there is also a lot more flexibility about how and when debate work can get done — and far fewer “client emergencies”! And now that I have finally pulled the trigger, I realize that for ten years I have been saying that I enjoy practicing law “because it’s like debate.” So, I’m going back to the real thing.

JM: When you debated in High School and College, what were favorite arguments to go for?
JS: I can practically answer this question just by telling you what schools I debated for — Lexington and Wake Forest — hint: that means big-impact mainstream policy arguments. I was the 2A for most of college and I really enjoyed the process of writing an aff, reading everything I could find about it, etc. “The kritik” was brand new when I was a junior in college and I was never inclined to take the idea very seriously in competition — and I can’t say my view has changed since then. Coming from the teams I debated for and then my practice as a lawyer, you can imagine I have some pretty strong defaults toward pragmatism and policy-making — and in favor of using your speech time to deliver a speech! Of course I recognize that critical arguments have become an established part of the debate landscape — whether I like it or not — but can you imagine a lawyer standing up in court and telling the judge that we can’t talk about the lawsuit until we examine the meaning of “existence”? Or doing some kind of interpretive dance?

JM: I see you’ve worked with some Georgia teams in the past, did you ever make an appearance in a judging pool with these teams?
JS: I did go to a number of tournaments, but I don’t think I judged many rounds, if any at all, while I was working with Riverwood (2004-05) or Grady (2005-06). At the time, I was working my “day job” as a lawyer and meeting with the debaters as a volunteer whenever I could fit it in, so when I had the time to make it to tournaments I usually tried to watch the teams I was working with — I wanted to see what we needed to focus on, and of course I also wanted to see the fruits of all their hard work!

JM: What are you most looking forward to this year with Pace?
JS: So many things. I certainly feel both fortunate and honored to be working at a school that is so supportive of its debate team, and I am also looking forward to working with a group of varsity debaters who are already so accomplished but at the same time have so much additional potential. And I am excited about teaching debate in the middle school at Pace because — as we all know — debate can change a person’s life path in so many positive ways, and I get to be the person who shapes their introduction to the game.

New Coaches

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