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Tufts Dental Takes Home the 2025 ASDA District 1 Student Debate Trophy

February 3, 2025 - On Saturday, February 1, 2025, at the Yankee Dental Congress, five American Student Dental Association (ASDA) District 1 Dental Schools plus one pre-dental team faced off in the 16th Annual Student Debate. In the end, teammates Kweisi Stanley and Jorge Bacallao from the Tufts University School of Dental Medicine came out on top. The Tufts team took home the coveted trophy and honor of the Student Debate champion.

The Debate ran for three rounds, culminating in a final round to determine the winner. Debate judges, American Dental Association (ADA) District 3 Trustee Dr. Jim Boyle, ADA District 1 Trustee Dr. Jonathan Knapp, and Massachusetts Dental Society (MDS) Region 4 Trustee Dr. Mary DeMello evaluated the teams on a set of predetermined criteria. The six debate teams tackled the following topics:
  1. Does building more dental schools in rural areas solve the need for increased access to care?
  2. Does the increasing prevalence of corporate dentistry ultimately benefit or harm the field of dentistry?
  3. Is it ethical to deny specific treatments based on patient factors such as diabetes, smoking cessation status, chronic conditions, age and similar considerations?
Teams knew the topics of the preliminary rounds but did not know if they would be presenting affirmative or opposing perspectives on each topic. They came prepared to argue both viewpoints. Judges and an audience of more than 150 colleagues and students listened to arguments for all three rounds. The judges then calculated the scores for each team, determining who earned the top two spots. 
Those teams, Tufts University School of Dental Medicine and Harvard School of Dental Medicine, moved on to the final round with a new topic, “Do dental mission trips align with the ethical obligation of being a dentist?” After a brief ten-minute intermission to prepare, the two teams presented their arguments. Both teams offered strong talking points. In the end, the judges determined that the Tufts students had a stronger argument and were awarded the trophy and title of Debate Champion.

The debate was a hard-fought battle between Boston University's June Woo Lim and Xin Xiong; Harvard School of Dental Medicine's Janaki Chandra and Ryan Jin; Tufts University School of Dental Medicine's Jorge Bacallao, and Kweisi Stanley; University of Connecticut School of Dental Medicine's Adhvika Arunkumar and Nick Desgranges; University of New England College of Dental Medicine (UNECDM) Narae Lee and Constance Newell; and the predental team of Kota Tsukada and Gwyneth Wong. Congratulations to the winners and all who participated.