ConnectUs Youth Spotlight EP 7 — Ahmad: From Best Delegate to Building Uzbekistan's Debate Community
- Woosung
- 5 days ago
- 5 min read
In Episode 7 of the ConnectUs Youth Spotlight, we spoke with Ahmad, a senior at Thompson International School in Tashkent, Uzbekistan. Ahmad co-founded a free debate organization with more than 250 students enrolled, went from placing 250th at a regional competition to finishing in the top 40 internationally at the World Schools Cup, and is working toward a career in diplomacy at the United Nations.
For those new to ConnectUs, our podcast puts a spotlight on ambitious high school students who are actively working toward something meaningful. Ahmad's episode centers on a specific kind of ambition: learning something, getting good at it, and immediately making it available to the people around him.
A Little Background
Ahmad is finishing 11th grade at Thompson International School in Tashkent, Uzbekistan. The school operates six branches across the country and offers SAT and IELTS preparation alongside AP classes, with internship connections to governmental institutions. Several students from his class this year received offers from NYU Abu Dhabi.
His focus is international relations and political science. He speaks four languages: Uzbek, Russian, English, and Arabic. His long-term plan is to work at the United Nations, starting with internships during university and eventually pursuing a diplomatic path.
How It Started
Ahmad had never been to a Model United Nations (MUN) conference before 2025. He went to his first one in Tashkent, knowing very little about how it worked, and came back with the best delegate award.
That result shifted something. He started following debate seriously, and through debate, he found international relations. The two things came together naturally for him: the skills built in a debate room, preparation, argumentation, representing a position under pressure, map directly onto what diplomats and international policymakers actually do.
His aunt Negora was an important part of that realization. She had been watching Ahmad and felt he had the right instincts for international relations: confident with people, good at speaking, not particularly drawn to engineering or math by his own description, but sharp when making a case. She encouraged him to go to that first MUN and later pushed him to start his own debate project.
DiploMind Debate
After his MUN experience, Ahmad co-founded Diplomat Debate alongside a classmate named Luca, operating out of SAT-Tashkent.
The format they built is specific. One judge, three speakers per side (affirmative and negative), no points of information, no open floor debate. Students get 15 minutes to prepare with their devices after receiving the motion, and after that, the devices are put away. Ahmad and Luca developed the format together and designed it to keep the focus on the debaters themselves, not what they can look up in the moment.
Recruiting happened through social media, primarily through SAT-Tashkent's Instagram, LinkedIn, and Telegram channels, which carry a significant amount of subscribers. Sessions are posted regularly, active participants receive certificates of recognition, and the best debater and best speaker are named at the end of each week.
More than 250 students have come through Diplomat Debate. There is no fee to join. Ahmad is straightforward about why: he did not start the project to make money. He started it because debate changed how he thought, and he wanted other students to have that.
World Schools Cup: From 250th to Top 40
The World Schools Cup (WSC) is one of the most competitive student competitions in Uzbekistan, running three rounds: a regional stage in Tashkent, a global round held internationally, and a final Tournament of Champions at Yale University.
Ahmad qualified from the regional round in 2025. He placed 250th out of approximately 500 students. By his own account, it was disappointing. He had expected more from himself and knew he could do better at the global stage.
What followed was three months of focused preparation. He attended every debate club and project he could find in Tashkent. He built vocabulary deliberately, learning 10 topic-specific words per day using AI tools to generate motion-relevant lists. He practiced by shadowing: setting a motion, picking a side, jotting bullet points, and then speaking alone, often in front of a mirror. No audience, no pressure, just repetition.
At the global round in Doha, Qatar, Ahmad's team was the only team from Uzbekistan to win all three of their rounds. He finished in the top 40 among roughly 1,000 international students.
At the closing ceremony, he was selected as one of seven students to participate in the debate showcase, a special event where top students from across the competition represent their countries. Ahmad was selected to represent Uzbekistan, not as a debater in that round, but as one of the judges. He stood on stage and announced the winning side.
His Advice
On preparing for debate and MUN, Ahmad's recommendation is shadowing. A mirror and a phone is enough. Pick a motion, decide your side, write a few bullet points, and speak. Then keep speaking. Pair that with deliberate vocabulary building, especially topic-specific terms for whatever field the motion covers. Ten words a day, looked up and learned, adds up.
On the question of being assigned a difficult country in MUN, Ahmad's view is practical. He was once assigned Saudi Arabia for a motion on gender equality in the workplace. Rather than trying to sidestep the position, he found what was defensible and argued it directly. His point is that fairness in MUN depends on the chairs, but your performance depends on you. Show your best regardless of the hand you are dealt.
What Is Next
Ahmad is preparing to graduate and is targeting universities in the United States. His plan from there is to intern at organizations connected to international relations while studying, build that experience across different institutions, and eventually pursue work within the United Nations. He wants to be a diplomat.
He has a clear sense of why that path fits: he is not drawn to engineering or technical fields, but put him in a room where someone needs to be persuaded or a conflict needs a clear argument, and he is in his element.
We are glad Ahmad joined us for this episode, and we are looking forward to following what he builds next.
Tune in to the full episode of the ConnectUs Youth Spotlight, available on Spotify and across our social channels.
Ahmad's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ahmad-safoev-6a0429375/
DiploMind Debate: https://www.linkedin.com/company/diplomind/
Citations:
“Nest One, Tashkent.” Wikimedia Commons, photograph by ShNajimova, 5 June 2024, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:NEST_ONE,_Tashkent.jpg
“What Is MUN?” CAPITALMUN, Washington Adventist University, https://capitalmun.org/what-is-mun.
“The World Scholar’s Cup.” World Scholar’s Cup, https://www.scholarscup.org/. Accessed 3 Apr. 2026
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