ASHLEY Bowron could talk her way into a plane ticket to Scotland - in fact, she's done just that.
Bowron, 18, has been selected as one of six members of Canada's national debate team who will represent the country at the World Schools Debating Championship in Dundee, Scotland, the culmination of more than two years of tournaments, qualifications and training for the North Vancouver resident.
But she insists she was actually shy before being thrust on stage as part of a musical theatre program, where she grew to love the limelight. When Mulgrave school started a debate club, she was one of the first to sign up, and kept at it when she moved to West Point Grey Academy in Vancouver's West Side in Grade 11.
"It was one of those things where I started out quite shy when I was younger, but once I started getting into theatre and getting comfortable speaking in front of crowds, then my parents couldn't stop me," she said.
In the upcoming championships, teams of five from countries around the world will compete, with three members involved in each debate, while the Canadian team also includes an alternate. They start with prepared debates focusing on topics such as politics, morality and law, and Bowron and her team is already practising on those via Skype. However, they will get truly tested when teams are given an impromptu topic and have just an hour to prepare the debate.
"Only five of us are allowed to go into the prep room. At first we brainstorm silently, then together construct a debate and divide it around the people who are debating," she said.
While she gets nervous ahead of the competitions, she said it helps her to study and pushes her to do more. Experience helps; this will be her fourth international tournament after competing in Germany, the Czech Republic and New Zealand in the past year.
Aside from the travel, she said debate has helped her learn a lot about the world - especially European politics - through the topics she's debated.
She's argued whether to legalize the sale of organs, whether university primary education is helpful for international development, and whether women get greater equality under secular governments. But despite the fierce debates, she rarely has a strong opinion on the topics herself.
"When I spend so much time prepping so many different topics, I have such a strong understanding of both sides of every issue that I rarely get emotionally attached to a side."
Just as important as that, she said, debating helped her learn how to present an argument clearly, "which probably helped in my grades because I was more clear in presenting my ideas."
That's a skill that ought to come in handy in university, where Bowron said she's interested in studying law or business.
But there remain a few people who Bowron has a hard time convincing, in particular her parents.
"They always knew what I was up to," she said. "They would say, 'I'm not going to debate you on this Ashley.'"
