Southwestern College’s debate coach and communications professor Graciela Saez-Kleriga passed away on May 7, after guiding the debate team through a successful season.
The team took home an armful of accolades after their final tournament of the season, including second place in the nation for the policy debate by a novice team. Saez-Kleriga, aided by Eric Maag and Jordan Mills, coached the team in battles against 100 colleges and universities across the country.
Debate team member Michael Berry said Saez-Kleriga taught him everything he knows about debating. He said she would stay late at night developing strategies to prepare the students. She would also open her home to the team in order to encourage the students to open their hearts to one another. She promoted teamwork, Berry said, and put effort every day into having a united and knowledgeable crew.
“She wanted us to work together,” Berry said. “She showed that through her actions, she was a caring person.”
Education was a priority for Saez-Kleriga. She strived to create opportunities for students in need of resources or support.
Maag said Saez-Kleriga was an excellent debater and amazing coach who recreated the program when she joined. If titles between coaches were given, she would have been the leader, he said. She played a momentous role in the team’s accomplishments.
“There really wasn’t anything she wasn’t good at,” Maag said. “She was a very cool person, a very good friend.”
Berry and debate partner Marnon Navarro did what Saez-Kleriga taught them to do their best and work together. Navarro said he is gratified in knowing that community colleges have a shot opposing four-year schools.
“It’s a community college going against four-years, it feels like the underdog rising up,” Navarro said. “It’s a really good feeling representing the school.”
Berry said it was an honor to be competing at the same level of prestigious institutions.
“It’s an amazing feeling being able to win against four-year colleges,” Berry said. “It’s really accelerating to be able to compete on the same level of those teams.”
Mills said debating is the matter of fully understanding a subject and commends his students for being up to the challenge. He enjoys coaching because a new topic is deeply explored each year. Gets to learn a lot about different subjects when preparing the competitors, he said.
“I know that my job is never going to be boring,” Mills said. “I have to do a master’s thesis worth of research on a new subject every year.”
Maag talked about how students need to learn the rules of debate, the speech times and how to organize arguments. By practicing a particular topic for a year, the competitors get to revise their performances and improve for the upcoming tournaments.
“We are always researching, reading new authors,” Maag said. “The preparation never really ends, it’s an always on-going process.”
Navarro said the team is successful because of the bond they share. They were who encouraged him to put in the extra hours of studying.
Berry agreed and said their bond goes beyond the classroom. “I think having a real personal relationship with everybody is key to success,” Berry said.
With people leaving the debate team each year and students joining with distinct debate skills, the dynamic of the class changes, Maag said. He enjoys figuring out how to help students learn new things about debate even though they are at different levels.
“You can never teach it the same way twice,” Maag said. “I have brand new people sitting next to people who have been here for a year, next to people who are in their second year.”
A GoFundMe campaign has been created with the purpose to obtain a scholarship fund for Saez-Kleriga’s daughters and in that way keep her love for education alive.
