Valley Debate Wiz to Compete on World Stage

James Monroe High School senior Nassira Nicola will represent the United States at the world debate championships that kick off later this month in South Africa.

The 16-year-old, who has a 4.5 grade point average and an IQ of 165, according to her mother, has been busy nights at her Chatsworth home studying up on world events and strategizing by e-mail with her four East Coast teammates on how to beat their competitors.

She has had to set her alarm for 3:30 a.m. some days just to get her regular homework done.

“[Preparing] has definitely cut back on sleep and social time,” said Nassira, who starts her school day in North Hills at 6:30 a.m. with advanced placement French. She usually finishes 12 hours later, after classes and afternoon speech and debate activities.

“Her schedule is insane,” said her mother, Linda Nicola, a pet groomer who has raised Nassira alone since her daughter was 7.

Nassira will be competing in the World Schools Debating Championship--where high school students with silver tongues who have been plucked out of local and national competitions represent their countries.

Thirty-four nations will compete at the tournament beginning Jan. 31.

“These kids are very worldly,” said New York-based Phyllis Hirth, coach of the U.S. team, which also includes three students from New York and one from Florida. “[Nassira] is extremely bright. She has a wealth of information at her fingertips.”

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Students must pay for the 10-day trip, which includes six days of competition during which the teams will argue the pros and cons of predetermined issues.

This year’s topics are relieving Third World debt, waiving patent rights for AIDS drugs for underdeveloped countries, gay adoption and forcing affluent nations to accept more refugees. Impromptu topics also will be thrown at them to test their ability to think quickly.

Each team member researches the topics from a different geographic perspective to offer a world view. Nassira, who argues without notes, is responsible for the British Isles, the Middle East and Australia. Judges score on facts, style and strategy.

Elimination rounds will be held in classrooms at various Johannesburg and Soweto schools. Final rounds will be held at larger venues to accommodate crowds.

The U.S. team also will squeeze in time for sightseeing at villages, prehistoric caves and the home of former South African president Nelson Mandela, who will deliver a keynote address to the group at a concluding banquet.

Asked if she would introduce herself to Mandela, Nassira said, “Absolutely. I know how to be pushy.”

A former child actress on a popular ABC Saturday-morning television show, “Fudge,” Nassira knows something about auditions and getting noticed. She wowed debate organizers in New York last summer when trying out for the U.S. team and was elected captain by her peers.

Her parents separated 10 years ago. At 12, she opposed her father in a Van Nuys family court case for consent to attend a summer school program abroad that had invited her to enroll based on her SAT scores. That was when she wrote her first legal brief, a “motion to an opposition of an injunction.”

She won her case and has taken summer studies at Dublin City University three times. She has not seen her father since.

When Nassira was in middle school, she was beaten up and routinely harassed by non-magnet students, so she took her plight to the Los Angeles Unified School District Board of Education. She argued that her Tarzana campus was too violent. As a result, she helped introduce an anti-violence peer mediation group on campus, with assistance from the U.S. Department of Justice.

“That was really empowering,” she said.

She said she hopes to work as an attorney in international human rights or in deaf education policy, which has been an interest of hers since she recently learned sign language for fun.

None of this surprises Monroe High School speech coach Kathy Graber, who has bigger plans for her.

“If all goes her way, I’m sure we’ll be voting for her [for president],” she said.

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Nassira was noticed several years ago by upper-class students on the Monroe debate team, who told Graber they had to recruit the “little girl with a big backpack” they had heard speak on campus. Nassira, who stands 4-feet-11-inches, introduced herself to Graber and started campaigning for a spot on the team. “I knew then that I wasn’t dealing with a typical ninth-grader,” Graber said.

That year, Nassira dethroned the reigning two-time champion, a senior, at the state debate championships with her 10-minute expository speech on the harp. She even played the instrument while she spoke.

“It’s unheard of for a freshman to even qualify to go to the state championships, let alone win it,” Graber said.

She has gone on to win, place or qualify at other competitions on the National Forensics League circuit and in statewide tournaments.

But for now, her eye is on the world. To prepare, she has been reading international news magazines and newspapers online and scouting her competition on videotape. New Zealand is aggressive and fast, she said. Pakistan stretches the truth a bit, and the Scots are strong in analysis and wit.

“She can hold her own on any subject,” Graber said. “She speaks with such authority even if she doesn’t know all the facts. That’s a great talent to have. When in doubt--bluff.”