ALUMNI ANGLES
A Vision for Central Florida:
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One Alum’s Quest to Expand Speech and Debate by Steve Schappaugh
Debate changed my life, and I knew it was the key to a meaningful education.”
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ational champion. Presidential Scholarship recipient. Law school commencement speaker. Published in the Orlando Sentinel, Human Events, and collegiate textbooks. This is not a list of accomplishments of a group of alumni. This represents part of the resume of a single alumna. While any of the items in this list would make an individual worthy of being recognized as a distinguished alum in our magazine, we selected Tara Tedrow for a different reason. Tara Tedrow has worked to make speech and debate accessible to students since she graduated high school. As a college student, she worked with students in the WinstonSalem public schools to teach speaking and debating. The lack of meaningful programs hit too close to home for Tara. When she returned to Orlando, she realized that “a lot of schools I used to compete against, and even the school I won multiple national championships for, had lost their programs entirely or were barely competing.” “Debate changed my life, and I knew it was the key to a meaningful
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— Tara Tedrow, 2005 alumna education,” Tara notes. She wants that opportunity for all kids, of all backgrounds. “Three and a half years ago, Tara answered a challenge from our district Superintendent asking community members to help our public schools,” says Beth Eskin of Timber Creek High School. “Tara’s vision was to bring speech and debate competition opportunities to our public schools. As a former competitor, Tara knew the disparities in financial support for forensics that existed between private and public schools, and Tara wanted to close that gap.” As part of following the call to action by the Superintendent, Tara reached out to Beth and started the Central Florida Debate Initiative (CFDI). This non-profit organization works to create extra and co-curricular opportunities for speech and debate programs in Orange and Osceola counties in Florida. The CFDI was designed to foster and develop critical thinking and communication skills to support college and career readiness. Tara notes, “The benefits of debate are remarkable: a number of peer-reviewed
journals have established that speech and debate students are more likely to graduate, meet ACT college-readiness benchmarks, have greater critical thinking and communication skills and show greater gains in cumulative GPAs.” To make the benefits possible, the CFDI provides funding, mentorship, and curriculum support as part of a framework to create sustainable speech and debate programs. At its core, Tara explains that “the CFDI provides opportunities to level the educational playing field and bridge the achievement gaps for students of all backgrounds.” The program last year served hundreds of students through after-school tournaments and free trainings throughout the season. In fact, Beth points out that in Orange County, there are 18 of 19 potential schools that are offering speech and debate as an opportunity in and outside of the classroom. “In addition, Osceola County Public Schools now also support speech and debate programs in their high schools, and even schools from farther surrounding counties have competed with us and/or asked us to come to their schools to conduct workshops,” Beth notes. “The growth