Who is Christian?
Christian Fernandez is the current Chief of Operations at Ethos Debate.
He holds a Bachelors of Arts in Literature and a Master of Letters in Shakespeare and Performance. As a high school student, Christian competed in Lincoln-Douglas, where he ultimately ranked nationally in 2010 and 2011. In college, he competed in Mock Trial all four years, leading several teams, earning multiple individual awards, and competing at the National Championship Tournament twice. Since 2014, Christian has taught debate and coached several students to National Championship rankings in Lincoln-Douglas Debate and Moot Court, including 2019 Moot Court champions Hope Turner and Hope Rawlson.
Christian’s studies include on English literature, classical rhetoric, orations, and theatrical history. In 2019, he returned to Patrick Henry College to assist in the curriculum development and teaching of the college’s courses on Rhetoric and Recitation.
Coaching Philosophy
As a subscriber of Aristotle’s three artistic means of persuasion, I especially emphasize pathos: the relationship between the speaker and the audience. Understanding the means and objectives of pathos transcend lessons in speech and debate from merely tricks for wining competitions to tools of rhetoric applicable to everyday conversations. In my Recitation classes, I always push my students to see how orators of antiquity and modernity use their language and argumentation to speak to the heart of an audience’s hopes and address their fears. In doing so, one realizes that rhetoric is essentially about persuasion, which is about the shifting of an audience’s perspective or opinion for the audience’s good. In short, pathos reminds us of this principle: truth spoken merely as proof can fall upon deaf ears; truth shared upon a common foundation engages and enlightens.
Awards and Accomplishments
- 2019-present: Adjunct Professor of Rhetoric and Recitation at Patrick Henry College
- 2019-2020: Patrick Henry College Mock Trial Head Coach, led three teams to qualify to the AMTA Opening Round Championship*
- 2019-Coached Moot Court NCFCA Champions (Hope Rawlson and Hope Turner)
- 2016-Durham Regional Tournament Attorney Award
- 2014, 2016-Patrick Henry College Mock Trial Attorney at the AMTA National Championship Tournament
- 2011- 4th place Lincoln-Douglas Debate at NCFCA Nationals
- 2011- 4th place Lincoln-Douglas Speaker Award at NCFCA Nationals
- 2011-4th place Lincoln-Douglas Debate at NCFCA Region 8 Regionals
- 2011-Ranked top 10 in NITOC Lincoln-Douglas Debate rankings
- 2010-Published author for Monument Publishing’s Red Book Lincoln-Douglas sourcebook
- 2010-10th place Impromptu at NCFCA Nationals
- 2010-1st place Lincoln-Douglas Debate at NCFCA at NCFCA Region 8 Regionals
- 2010-1st place Speaker Award Lincoln-Douglas Debate at NCFCA Region 8 Regionals
- 2009-1st place Speaker Award Lincoln-Douglas at NCFCA Region 8 Regionals