EDC UNTIRTA : A Brief History

English Debating Club UNTIRTA or commonly known as EDC UNTIRTA was built on the foundation of awareness about  the importance of knowledge development, especially in critical thinking skills and English language proficiency. The establishment of EDC carries the purpose of providing a platform for passionate students who want and are dedicated to improving their capacity to face global issues and tackle today’s challenge in enhancing the quality of human resource. We strive to empower UNTIRTA students to be better each day and bring the best version out of themselves.

Earlier days

         EDC was established on 20th of December 2005. In the earlier stage, EDC was not yet included as Unit Kegiatan Mahasiswa or UKM (official student group activities) of Universitas Sultan Ageng TIrtayasa. In those days, our participants were mostly students from English Department majors. During several sessions of practices, other students who used to attend the debate competition since senior high school started growing their interest to become EDC members. 

At a later time, we gained more and more high enthusiasm not only from English Department students but also from other majors. Not only provided English environment to help them in improving their language skills, EDC also started to conduct outstanding events and contests in carrying the mission to give valuable knowledge and experience to the public as well as helping its members expand their network and scale up their organizational skills.

Becoming An Official Student Organization

         After running for a few years, EDC officially became a part of UKM in 2008. Years before that, we were striving to run independently as a student organization, from looking for sponsors to creating profitable projects to support our funding. EDC has started to manifest its progress and achievements until finally obtaining the recognition to be one of the UKM in Sultan Ageng Tirtayasa University. 

In early 2012, one of our debaters snatched the 3rd Best Novice Speaker score at Asian English Olympic held by Bina Nusantara University and managed to participate in Oxford Open Debate Competition in the same year. Our members recorded more achievements from year to year. In 2017, for example, two of our debaters successfully brought home the title of 2nd and 3rd Best Novice Speaker in Java Overland Intervarsities English Debate. We were also placed as 1st Runner Up in the Indonesian Varsity English Debate in the novice category back in 2018.

There are some values that EDC always try to internalize to its members which help them excel and be better each day. Every organization usually holds a strong grip to its own culture, and so do we. Those said cultures can also be known as “EDC’s Culture”. One of its main points is to never oversimplify any agenda we're going to have, be it a competition or an event. This has been a powerful reminder to our member to always give 100% in whatever we do since the early days. We believe that our organization culture has contributed to the improvement of EDC itself in terms of achieving milestones and helping every member to be an excellent debater and a competent, capable, and hard working organization member.

Our today’s challenges

    In the meantime, the global pandemic has impacted our activities in all ways possible. It is obviously hindering the organization's overall offline performance which resulted in the shifting of practice mechanisms. Most of the discussions and meetings have to be conducted virtually and the communication noises cannot be avoided sometimes. 

As an organization which relies heavily on communication and discussion activity, this circumstance is a challenge EDC members are currently trying to tackle down. Being debaters in itself has given the competitive advantage to us to be comfortable with the discomfort and not give up easily on achieving goals and purposes. Online practices can be tough, but the willingness to achieve more and become a responsible individual are our tools to keep going.

Thanks to the strong, long-lasting bond among EDC alumni, aid and support are endlessly received by EDC members. Words of encouragement and their guidance has been helpful in lifting our members’ up and navigating us to success. EDC members can be fierce and competitive, but we always have each other’s back whenever need be. EDC UNTIRTA will always aspire to shine, contribute, and create positive impact for its members and surroundings.

Writer: Dianisha Syahputri

Editor: Alisatul Aini

Visual: Balqis Kazama Kinari