Iggy was a kid who had a lot of strikes against him. He never knew his biological dad. His mom struggled with drug addiction, and he landed in foster care. He attended Baltimore's Frederick Douglass High School, one of four failing Baltimore schools slated for takeover under the No Child Left Behind Act. His odds of success were poor: Only 56 percent of Frederick Douglass students had graduated in 2006.
But Iggy, an argumentative kid, found a way to channel his contrariness through the wildly popular Baltimore Urban Debate League, a program that teaches the fundamentals of democracy -- as well as critical thinking, basic literacy and research skills -- to underprivileged students. Weekly debate tournaments in the city continue to draw more than 1,000 students on any given weekend.
