How
Thank you to all of the students and coaches who joined us this past summer for the 30th Annual UT National Institute in Forensics. The UTNIF continues to be one of the largest and most accomplished summer forensic programs in the country. Just a few reasons why our students keep coming back year after year: incomparable education, superior resources, unmatched faculty, reasonable rates, tremendous alumni, and the background of the University of Texas at Austin. www.utspeech.net www.utdebatecamp.com
Passion… Elegance… Excellence
As a former English teacher and speech and debate coach, I have always held a great appreciation for solid writing skills— and for those who excel at their craft.
In this issue, we speak with several speech and debate alumni, including David Henry Hwang, Michael Franklin, and AnnMarie Baines, who make their words come to life as playwrights, screenwriters, authors, and more. Each credit their time in the activity for honing their skills and making lasting connections. We also feature a Q&A with prominent author Celeste Ng, who offers her tips for beginning writers.
Excellence arrives in many forms—sometimes halfway around the globe. Earlier this summer, the USA Debate team traveled to Vietnam for the World Schools Debating Championships, and for the first time since 1994, the U.S. reclaimed the world title! I wish to congratulate all of Team USA for a fantastic performance, and invite you to read more about their preparations for the world stage on page 36. As Cindi and Aaron Timmons prepare to step back from the World Schools limelight after 10 years of leading the USA Debate team, Cindi shares her own “Words from the Hall” on page 64. She talks about her journey in speech and debate and offers tips for finding new ways to stay involved in the activity.
As you prepare for your own season of excellence, we provide strategies to engage middle and elementary students (page 20), ideas for fresh fundraising (page 18), additional opportunities for DEI education and discussion (page 14), and much more. I hope the many resources, tips, and stories offered within these pages set you up for success in the months ahead!
Sincerely,
J. Scott Wunn Executive Director
P.S. Have you renewed your membership? Be sure to visit www.speechanddebate.org/signup by the end of October to ensure you receive the next issue of Rostrum and all the resources and recognition NSDA membership provides!
Rostrum A PUBLICATION OF THE NATIONAL SPEECH & DEBATE ASSOCIATION 6600 Westown Parkway, Suite 270, West Des Moines, IA 50266 | Phone (920) 748-6206
J. Scott Wunn, Publisher
Amy Seidelman, Editor
Vicki Joss, Managing Editor
Annie Reisener, Associate Editor
Emily Bratton, Graphic Design Assistant
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Rostrum (ISSN 1073-5526), Copyright © 2023 by the National Speech & Debate Association (NSDA), is published five times per year (Sept., Nov., Feb., Apr., and Aug.) by the NSDA, 6600 Westown Parkway, Suite 270, West Des Moines, IA 50266. Business and Editorial Offices: NSDA, 6600 Westown Parkway, Suite 270, West Des Moines, IA 50266. Accounting and Circulation Offices: 6600 Westown Parkway, Suite 270, West Des Moines, IA 50266. Call (920) 748-6206 to subscribe. Periodicals postage is paid at Des Moines, IA 50318, and additional mailing offices. POSTMASTER: Please send address changes to Rostrum, c/o NSDA, 6600 Westown Parkway, Suite 270, West Des Moines, IA 50266. Rostrum provides a forum for the speech and debate community. The opinions expressed by contributors are their own and not necessarily the opinions of the NSDA, its officers, or its members. The National Speech & Debate Association does not guarantee advertised products and services unless sold directly by the NSDA.
Pam Cady Wycoff President
Minnesota
Dr. Tommie Lindsey, Jr. Vice President
California
Byron R. Arthur
Louisiana
David Huston
Texas
Adam J. Jacobi
Wisconsin
Jennifer M. Jerome
Nebraska
Renee C. Motter
Colorado
James W. Rye III
Alabama
Dr. Alan H. Coverstone
District of Columbia
Dr. Mike Edmonds
Colorado
Sara Gibson
District of Columbia
Anoop Mishra
Alabama
Holly Williams Arizona
To learn more about the Board, visit www.speechanddebate.org/ meet-the-team. You may also contact the Board by emailing board@speechanddebate.org
Topic specific, quality arguments
Provide excellent models of argument & presentation
The high quality Policy-CX evidence your debaters need to jump start their research Affirmatives, disadvantages, counterplans, kritiks, topicality arguments. Aff, Neg, Sept, Oct-March, and May supplements.
Excellent topic specific LD evidence and topic analysis for your LD debaters. Aff and neg cases, definitions, topic arguments. We cover the NSDA and UIL LD topics for the year.
Public Forum Debate: high quality evidence, topic analysis, and definitions for the NSDA Public Forum Topics. Includes multiple case contentions and rebuttals.
Clear, step by step instruction for LD, Policy-CX, Parli, Public Forum Debate, and Individual Events. Prepbooks are great handouts to help students prepare, and Teacher Materials make instruction easier.
OUR MISSION Rostrum shares best practices, resources, and opportunities that connect, support, and inspire a diverse community of educators committed to empowering students through speech and debate.
The first place finisher of The American Legion’s National Oratorical Contest is awarded a $25,000 scholarship, second place $22,500, and third place $20,000. As part of the National Speech & Debate Association’s ongoing alliance with The American Legion, those top three finishers may also earn the right to compete in Original Oratory or United States Extemporaneous Speaking at the National Speech & Debate Tournament!
Member students and one chapter advisor per school are eligible to vote!
The PF Wording Committee creates a topic area with two resolutions for each topic cycle. All potential topics for the year are released in June. One week prior to the topic being released for that topic cycle, member students and one chapter adviser per active school will vote on which of the two topics they prefer. The topic that receives the most votes will be the topic for that cycle. The goal of this process is to increase transparency about topic selection and introduce new possibilities for coaches who teach debate in the classroom.
October 1 November/December PF Topic Announced
December 1 January PF Topic Announced
January 1 February PF Topic Announced
February 1 March PF Topic Announced
March 1 April PF Topic Announced
May 1 National Tournament PF Topic Announced
June 24 List of Potential PF Topic Areas Announced for 2024-2025
Aug. 1 - Aug. 7 Voting for the 2024 September/October PF Topic Occurs
August 8 2024 September/October PF Topic Announced
The LD Wording Committee assigns a set of three topics to each bi-monthly topic cycle. All potential topics for the year are released in June. One week prior to the topic being released for that topic cycle, member students and one chapter adviser per active school will vote on which of the three topics they prefer. The topic that receives the most votes will be the topic for that cycle. The goal of this process is to increase transparency about topic selection and introduce new possibilities for coaches who teach debate in the classroom.
October 1 November/December LD Topic Announced
December 1 January/February LD Topic Announced
February 1 March/April LD Topic Announced
May 1 National Tournament LD Topic Announced
June 24 List of Potential LD Topics Announced for 2024-2025
Aug. 1 - Aug. 7 Voting for the 2024 September/October LD Topic Occurs
August 8 2024 September/October LD Topic Announced
The National Federation of State High School Associations (NFHS) handles selection of the annual topic. Each state organization, the National Speech & Debate Association (NSDA), the National Catholic Forensic League (NCFL), and the National Debate Coaches Association (NDCA) all have voting privileges.
• Topic synopsis released at www.speechanddebate.org/topics in September
• Preliminary voting on five topics occurs online in September and October
• Final voting on two topics occurs online in November and December
• Topic for 2024-2025 released by the NFHS in January 2024
SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2023
Resolved: The United States federal government should substantially increase its military presence in the Arctic.
SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2023
Resolved: The United States ought to guarantee the right to housing.
The NSDA also offers an optional resolution that may be used during the first two months of a novice LD season— Resolved: In the United States, national service ought to be mandatory. Coaches are encouraged to check with tournament hosts in their area before exclusively prepping for one topic over another.
2023–2024
Resolved: The United States federal government should substantially increase fiscal redistribution in the United States by adopting a federal jobs guarantee, expanding Social Security, and/or providing a basic income.
2023–2024
Resolved: Belief in the supernatural is incompatible with belief in science.
We’ve created a central hub to answer your questions about how topics are generated throughout the school year—and ways you can get involved in the process! Visit www.speechanddebate.org/topic-creation-hub to learn more, including:
How do I suggest a debate topic/resolution for consideration by a wording committee?
How are potential topics, prompts, and legislation written?
Who selects the topics, prompts, and legislation used in competition?
We invite you and your students to send us your debate topic ideas for Lincoln-Douglas and Public Forum as well as potential motions for consideration in World Schools Debate. Visit www.speechanddebate.org/topic-creationhub to access the online submission forms.
Member coaches and alums are encouraged to selfnominate to serve on one of our topic wording committees. Committees will either work on topics for the 2024 National Tournament or write potential resolutions for the 2024-2025 season. The work of these groups generally will be completed between March 1 and May 1, 2024. PF and LD committees may continue working into June. Access the online nomination form at www.speechanddebate.org/ topic-committee.
Any high school or middle school NSDA member student, regardless of their national qualification status, may submit legislation to be considered for the 2024 National Tournament Docket! Encourage your students to debate the topics they are passionate about—if they wrote it, they can submit it! Students may submit multiple pieces of legislation for consideration. If their legislation is selected to be part of the Nationals Docket, they will be recognized in Rostrum, receive a trophy after the tournament, and be awarded a $100 scholarship. This is a great way to boost students’ resumes and be recognized for their research and writing skills! The online form closes February 5, 2024. Get started at www.speechanddebate.org/congress-submission
The NSDA conducts an intentional and ongoing evaluation of the topics we encourage students to explore. Download a copy of the Topic Rubric Questions at www.speechanddebate.org/equity-topic-rubric
Beyond voting online, you and your students have several ways to contribute to the topics discussed throughout the year!
The Swiss Army knife made its debut in the 1880s when the Swiss Army commissioned a multifunctional pocket knife featuring tools that soldiers could use to open canned rations, maintain their rifles, and assemble or disassemble equipment. By the 1890s, the knife utilized a spring mechanism that expanded its features to include an additional cutting blade, corkscrew, and grips. Since its invention, the Swiss Army knife has been with soldiers on the battlefield and traveled with astronauts into space.
The Swiss Army knife was even popularized in the long running television show, MacGyver. In the series, the clever and resourceful title character, Angus MacGyver, was a secret agent. MacGyver was intriguing because he chose not to use traditional weapons like a gun. Instead, he relied upon his training, ingenuity, and one simple, multifunctional tool—the Swiss Army knife—to create solutions and, ultimately, save the day!
Although the term “Swiss Army knife” is literally defined as “a penknife incorporating several blades and other tools such as a scissors and screwdrivers,” in popular culture, the term is also synonymous with usefulness and adaptability.
I share this tool’s history with you because, as a coach for 45 years who has witnessed the transformative benefits of our activity in the lives of students,
I would argue that speech and debate is a metaphorical Swiss Army knife . It positively enhances a student’s life and career skills. How? By equipping students with the self-confidence, analytical, and communication skills necessary to pursue a vast variety of occupational choices in life’s “Real Final Rounds.”
While reflecting on this topic, I thought about the rewarding and diverse careers of our alumni who competed in various categories of speech and debate. Without a doubt, this co-curricular activity has the power to ignite a wide array of interests, as well as foster diverse skills. Each category has the potential to “speak” to students. The career paths fostered are endless, and sometimes surprising, but the skills developed and the interests ignited continually show up in unique and powerful ways.
To demonstrate the diverse impact of just one event in speech and debate, let’s take Original Oratory! Over the years, our alumni orators have found that their career pathways are positively influenced. Why? Because orators learn how to take an idea, develop a thesis, research the issue, analyze the problems, determine the cause and impact, and propose viable solutions in a manner that educates, motivates, and inspires change. They become creative problem-solvers and motivators. They learn how to advocate for themselves and others. They know how to develop compelling reasons and viable solutions to effect change.
Our alumni in this one event have manifested these skills in meaningful ways within their chosen professions. They have become communications consultants, nonprofit professionals, and CEOs. They are immersed in sales and marketing. They are college professors and high school educators. They are emergency room physicians, health care advocates, and registered nurses. They are human resources administrators, research analysts, and attorneys. They are professional actors and entrepreneurs. This list, as with your graduates, goes on, doesn’t it?
Without a doubt, there is a correlation between speech and debate and the development of vital life skills that remain long after the competition ends. Much like the Swiss Army knife can be a “one stop shop” for handling life’s challenges, speech and debate is a “one stop shop” capable of transforming the skills of compelling communication, constructive argumentation, and moving literary performances into an array of diverse careers and vital life skills.
MacGyver creatively used the Swiss Army knife in his life to continually succeed as a secret agent. For our alumni, speech and debate is the metaphorical Swiss Army knife that transforms lives so that students can become an “agent of change” in their own lives—professionally and personally, as well as in the lives of others. Like the TV show, MacGyver, that’s worth tuning in for!
To be continued...
Pam Cady Wycoff NSDA Board PresidentIf you would like to connect with Pam, please email pam.wycoff@speechanddebate.org .
ISD is home to numerous national champions, but we understand that speech and debate is about more than winning. We prioritize skills over tricks
Individualized Curriculum
A Commitment to Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Justice
Robust Financial Aid Program
Equal Access to Our Faculty
WE ARE SPEECH & DEBATE
CHANGED MY LIFE BY TEACHING ME TO BE A CRITICAL THINKER, AND I TAKE THAT WITH ME IN EVERYTHING I DO.
YVANNA CANCELA
Carrollton School of The Sacred Heart, FL – Class of 2006
Special Assistant to the President
Join us in honoring all of the Hispanic and Latine students, coaches, alumni, and supporters who help make speech and debate possible. Find classroom posters, lesson plans, competition resources, and more on our website. Visit www.speechanddebate.org/national-hispanic-heritagemonth to get started!
As we begin a new school year, planning attendance at tournaments throughout the season is a crucial item on the “to do” list of most coaches. As you do so, and as you ask your students to work and prepare for competitions, please consider cultural observations that are often overlooked (especially those associated with faith traditions) and may have implications on student energy and focus. Access the 2023-2024 calendar online at www.tinyurl.com/44dpmzep
Our Start Here lesson plan collections are included with NSDA membership and feature all the instruction needed for students to master events! Visit www.speechanddebate.org/start-here to use them in full, borrow activities or assessments, or share them with students as a tool for peer coaching.
The minutes from the Board of Directors’ May and August Competition Rules meetings are available online at www. speechanddebate.org/minutes-archive
The NSDA has engaged Education First (www.education-first.com) in a discovery process examining how the membership model and National Tournament qualification process might better serve the NSDA’s goal to increase school participation in inclusive and accessible speech and debate. Education First is a mission-driven strategy and policy organization dedicated to helping organizations create more people-focused, equitable, and inclusive strategies. District leaders, coaches representing different school types and settings, students, alumni, administrators, and donors will be invited to contribute to this process. More information will be available after the fall Board of Directors meeting. Learn more at www.speechanddebate.org/next-100-years
Our final round videos are one of our most popular tools! Students and coaches alike can pick up on new trends, examine stylistic choices and speech structure, or just learn more about events. The archive is available to all members and dates back decades. Visit www.speechanddebate.org/ final-round-videos to learn more.
Join us as we honor you, our members, who make this amazing activity possible! We will celebrate all week long across our various channels beginning October 23.
Our commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion stems from a philosophy that all members of our organization deserve the opportunity to participate in competitive speech and debate in ways that align with our mission. NSDA members deserve a caring and welcoming environment— one that is committed to conditions of fairness, fosters inclusion, affirms identity, celebrates lived experiences, and protects from harassment and discrimination.
We all have the responsibility to be good stewards of the activity.
Our students deserve culturally competent critiques that are helpful and encouraging.
Our coaches and judges deserve opportunities to grow both their programs and their craft.
Since 2017, the NSDA’s annual equity commitments have outlined steps to reinforce and advance diversity, equity, and inclusion in our organization. Last year, we presented new areas of focus while also continuing our work on previous commitments. This approach continues in 2023-2024 (next page).
compiled by Dr. Paul PorterIn response to last year’s equity commitments, we… Implemented the Belonging and Inclusion Station at 68 district tournaments, the NSDA Springboard Series, the Last-Chance Qualifier, and the National Speech & Debate Tournament.
Created the Judge Pool Diversity Initiative to incentivize judges who enhance the representational diversity of the National Tournament judge pool. Over $50,000 was allotted to support the inclusion of 28 additional judges.
Awarded $5,000 to the inaugural Activating Equity Award winner.
Introduced the Faces in the Crowd segment in Rostrum.
Created videos in celebration of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Day and Celebrate Diversity Month.
Introduced Food for Thought, a professional development series for NSDA staff.
Drafted a mission statement for the coaches’ caucuses and held bi-annual meetings with caucus leaders.
Published data on elimination round judge diversity in the April/ May 2023 issue of Rostrum
Provided approximately $14,000 to speech and debate programs through Keith West Memorial Fund awards and more than $100,000 through the Tate Fund in 2022-2023.
Continued to require that National Tournament judges receive certification in cultural competency
Hired a Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Intern for the National Tournament.
Introduced the Multicultural Learning Alliance
Introduced the NSDA Student Alliance
Began work on a year-long initiative to inventory and assess the NSDA’s DEI resources and draft a DEI plan with an anticipated completion date of August 2024.
2023-2024 | The themes for this year’s equity commitments are Engagement and Voice . These two areas were selected to reflect the NSDA’s intentions to support all members as well as recognize that as we build resources in service to our community, we must listen to and learn from our students and coaches.
The NSDA will begin work on developing a mentoring program to increase and sustain the diversity of speech and debate coaches by offering support and guidance to newer coaches in the activity.
The Multicultural Learning Alliance will host its inaugural sessions with the intent of connecting coaches, judges, and educators seeking to increase their multicultural competence, learn more about issues of diversity, equity, and inclusion, as well as share ways to support marginalized members of the speech and debate community.
The NSDA Student Alliance, a community of students committed to engaging in dialogues about issues of DEI in speech and debate, will host their inaugural meetings.
The NSDA will create infrastructure to promote new speech and debate programs in historically underserved school districts.
The NSDA will create networks designed to address unique barriers faced by coaches from small schools, faith-based schools, and schools from rural communities.
The NSDA will implement an Ad Hoc NSDA Committee on Wellness to promote a culture of physical, psychological, and emotional well-being for all members of the NSDA community.
Note: Additional details regarding these commitments are forthcoming. For more information, please visit www.speechanddebate.org/equity
Thank you for supporting our commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion. We hope you will continue to be partners in our efforts to make speech and debate a better activity!
The NSDA will facilitate a series of focus groups to hear the perspectives of coaches nationwide on topics related to diversity, equity, and inclusion.
The NSDA will continue to highlight and celebrate efforts of students, coaches, judges, alumni, etc., working to advance diversity, equity, and inclusion.
The NSDA will create a vision for increasing engagement of NSDA alumni participating in college speech and debate.
Are you beginning your DEI journey and looking to build a solid foundation?
The Multicultural Learning Alliance (MLA) provides a low-pressure environment to develop the knowledge, awareness, and skills needed to effectively engage in diverse spaces.
Mission: The Multicultural Learning Alliance seeks to connect coaches, judges, and educators looking to foster increased cultural competence, learn more about issues of diversity, equity, inclusion, access, and belonging, and share ways to support marginalized members of speech and debate communities.
Participants in the Multicultural Learning Alliance will: Develop multicultural knowledge, awareness, and skills necessary to effectively and successfully interact in diverse spaces.
Identify instances of inequity in speech and debate communities.
Recognize how personal assumptions, preconceived notions, and biases can cause a person to communicate (verbally, nonverbally, environmentally) in ways that are harmful to others.
Develop tangible strategies to create and promote inclusive and equitable spaces within their own teams and the speech and debate community.
2023-2024 Multicultural Learning Alliance Sessions
• The start time for all online sessions is 7:00 p.m. CT.
• Missed a session? Join us for a review of the previous session at 6:30 p.m. CT.
• Attendance at all sessions is encouraged but not required.
SESSION 1: Establishing Our Group
November 15, 2023
This kickoff session introduces the fundamental concepts of the Multicultural Learning Alliance. As a group, we will discuss the program’s mission, vision, and goals; establish ground rules and expectations; and set personal goals for participation in the MLA. Participants will engage in dialogue designed to introduce themselves, and share lived experiences.
SESSION 2: Understanding Multicultural Competence
January 24, 2024
Multicultural Competence is defined as the knowledge, awareness, and skills needed to work with others who are culturally different from self in meaningful, relevant, and productive ways. In this session, we will discuss the characteristics of multicultural competence, potential barriers, and ways to learn, think, and do more.
SESSION 3: Discussing Diverse Lived Experiences
February 21, 2024
This session explores how people’s lived experiences differ greatly from one to another and how they affect participation in speech and debate. We will discuss varying power dynamics and biases through dialogue and activities.
SESSION 4: Unconscious Bias
March 20, 2024
In this session, we will learn what unconscious bias is, how it functions, and why we have it. We will also discuss the consequences of bias in the speech and debate community and ways to navigate it.
April 17, 2024
Microaggressions are small, subtle comments that often cause considerable harm to others. In this session, we will discuss the different types of microaggressions, the magnitude of their effects, and how we can address them in the different roles we play in speech and debate.
May 15, 2024
How can each of us be an ally? How do we begin making changes that lead to a better experience for everyone in speech and debate? Through selfassessments, we will identify action steps for our individual teams, local competitions, our preparation for the National Tournament, and future seasons.
INSIGHT | The Coaches’ Caucuses engage in conversations on issues about the identity group the caucus represents. If you are looking for a space to discuss how to be effective allies, increase your multicultural competence, or discuss issues of equity and inclusion, please consider participating in the Multicultural Learning Alliance!
The NSDA Student Alliance is a community of students committed to engaging in dialogues about issues of diversity, equity, and inclusion in speech and debate.
The Student Alliance seeks to encourage and empower students through facilitated dialogues on diversity, equity, and inclusion in speech and debate and to share ideas and concerns with the national office through virtual and in-person meetings. For more information, please contact dei@speechanddebate.org.
The NSDA Coaches’ Caucuses provide opportunities to network with other coaches and join in important discussions and dialogue in safe and private spaces. The caucuses meet three times a year—virtually during the fall and spring, and in person at the National Tournament.
Women’s Caucus
September 10, 2023 | 6:00 p.m. CT
Abilities United Caucus
September 19, 2023 | 6:00 p.m. CT
Asian American, Pacific Islander Caucus
September 20, 2023 | 6:00 p.m. CT
Indigenous Persons Caucus
October 11, 2023 | 7:00 p.m. CT
Hispanic/Latine Caucus
October 17, 2023 | 7:00 p.m. CT
Black/African American Caucus
October 18, 2023 | 7:00 p.m. CT
LGBTQ+ Caucus
October 24, 2023 | 7:00 p.m. CT
For more information or to register, visit www.speechanddebate.org/equity .
Encourage understanding of the diverse identities and ideologies of students participating in speech and debate. Create opportunities for students to engage with NSDA leadership about issues of DEI.
Highlight and celebrate students’ accomplishments working to promote equity, inclusion, and belonging in the activity.
Promote a culture of competition with respect for different lived experiences and worldviews.
Facilitate conversations about equity (defined as operational processes, practices, and spaces that affirm identity, promote inclusion, and ensure the conditions of fairness) in speech and debate.
JUNE
For almost a century, the National Speech & Debate Association has lifted up student voices and encouraged young people around the world to be stronger leaders and better advocates for their communities. Join the students, coaches, alumni, parents, administrators, and supporters of the NSDA as we celebrate 100 years! The Centennial Celebration officially begins at the June 2024 National Tournament and culminates at the National Tournament in June 2025.
SAVE THE DATE!
Download a shareable social media graphic or a printable 8.5”x11” poster. Look for more resources with tips and ideas for commemorating our 100th anniversary coming soon!
www.speechanddebate.org/ centennial-poster
Share your speech and debate stories, pictures, and memories! Help us commemorate our history, visit our form: tinyurl.com/4f4tes42
Make a donation or introduce us to potential sponsors.
Since both the 2024 and 2025 National Tournaments take place in Des Moines, we are calling for on-site, in-person volunteers to join us in Iowa! We are also working on satellite celebrations throughout the country. Sign up and let us know if you plan to join us in Iowa or are interested in volunteering in your geographical area.
TWO OPPORTUNITIES
f In-person in Des Moines, Iowa, during June 2024 and/or June 2025
f In-person in your area as part of a satellite celebration during June 2024 and/or June 2025
Stay informed and provide input on the vision for the next 100 years of speech and debate by signing up at:
www.speechanddebate.org/next-100-years-signup
FORM: www.speechanddebate.org/centennial-volunteer-form
A new school year means taking on an aspect of team management that many members dread: fundraising. With resources and templates in hand and new ideas from the community, you can tackle fundraising positively as a team.
Use our in-depth guide to learn to build your budget, ask for donations, use social media for fundraising, generate press coverage, and thank supporters. You’ll be making progress in no time!
Check out our collection of fundraising ideas from teams across the country, like trivia night, haunted houses, and grant applications. | Have an idea to share? Please send us the details: www.speechanddebate.org/ fundraising-idea-submission
Consider offering team sponsorship packages in exchange for special promotional opportunities. Local businesses in your area may be looking for more exposure in the community through supporting a great cause like speech and debate. When you’re ready to reach out, use our template letter from a student to connect!
Membership grants are available for new schools and Title I programs. Apply online:
www.speechanddebate.org/program-grants
We invited Taite Kirkpatrick (’25), Student Leadership Council member from Mount Vernon High School in Washington, to share some of his perspectives on fundraising.
We have a rule in our code of conduct that requires the team find the funds for everyone with the desire and ability to compete at tournaments to do so, or else no one attends. It helps our team culture, has made our team more equitable, and gives our competitors a sense of agency.
The best way to create long-lasting and sustainable relationships between community sponsors and the debate team has been by acting like they are members. We send our newsletters to everyone who is connected to the team so they see the return on their investment: the smiles of members at tournaments, the trophies earned, even just the lists of places we’ve traveled! We invite them to showcases and send handwritten team thank you cards. It helps them feel valued, and it can help competitors recognize how much support it takes to maintain the team.
Like there are different love languages, there are different ways to support a debate team. Always be open to any help you can get, and give several options to sponsors. Here’s how my team operationalizes this:
• Items: Can’t give us a check? That’s alright, times are hard! Could you donate some supplies for our car wash, or a baked good for our dessert auction?
• Visible Support: This year, we had local businesses who were willing to put up flyers at their cash registers downtown to promote a fundraiser at a nearby store.
• Meet a Specific Need: We sent an email to our school staff and were able to find someone to tailor a dress for Nationals.
• Know Your Natural Partners: We keep a spreadsheet of every lawyer’s office in town and every remotely related business. We personally call them, each and every year!
• Foster Connection: This past season, we’ve also worked on connecting people from local organizations and businesses to younger members to create a mentorship relationship. For example, a local lawyer who donates every year is working with a ninth grader who dreams of being an immigration lawyer. Many adults, especially in small communities that are most in need of funding assistance, are happy to give back in this small way.
Annie Reisener serves as Director of Membership at the NSDA.
Involving high school students in middle school programs has proven to be a successful model. It offers older students a chance to put their knowledge to work while they earn service points. It also helps foster excitement for the activity at the middle school level as they look up to older students, which can create a strong feeder relationship between the two programs. This could be structured as an informal relationship where high school students drop by or offer occasional judging and critique, or you could really lean into it and empower students to truly teach.
Our Start Here lesson plan collections are designed for middle school students and can easily be used for peer coaching to take some of the pressure of planning instruction off of students.
When introducing middle schoolers to debate, choose topics that are relevant and engaging to middle school students. For instance, one of my favorite debates was “whether or not schools should allow students to use cell phones during lunch and breaks.” Because they have a natural interest in these kinds of topics, students are more likely to put effort into researching and developing their arguments, which can be an excellent stepping stone into more complex subjects as they grow.
Consider pairing high school students with middle schoolers as mentors. They’ll meet regularly, give short assignments for the week, evaluate their mentees’ progress, and check back in. When building teams, partner less experienced students with more experienced ones. This peer
mentorship can provide valuable insights and tips that can be less intimidating than learning from adults.
Incorporate team-building activities that foster camaraderie, as this will help create a sense of community among the students. One of my favorite games is “Debate Relay.” In Debate Relay, students are divided into teams, and each team is given a side of a debate topic. The twist is that each team member is only allowed to speak for a short time (e.g., 30 seconds) before the next team member must take over and continue the argument. Before starting the relay, we usually have a team brainstorming session where everyone jots down their thoughts and arguments on a shared piece of paper or whiteboard. This helps to foster collaboration as students need to understand and build upon each other’s points.
High school students Meherika Majumdar and John Otto both have experience coaching middle schoolers. Here they share three tips for engaging students.
Hall of Fame coach Gay Brasher has worked with her high school students to run one- to two-day weekend workshops for elementary students. Her formula has been working successfully for more than a decade!
Secure a classroom in your own school. (Be sure to check your school’s liability policies.) Keep in mind, larger rooms swallow the students’ voices and enthusiasm. However, the classroom must hold all of the elementary students as well as the student coaches from your team.
I typically cap enrollment at 34 to facilitate classroom management. Although you will be the workshop’s main instructor, recruit one student coach from your team for every two to four elementary students. The larger the studentto-coach ratio, the more time should be allotted for each activity. I award my high schoolers class credit or community service for having participated.
Develop a promotional flyer that informs parents of the communication skills their children will learn that weekend—skills that will be used every day in the classroom for group projects, book reports, and even to raise their hands and answer questions. Send out reminder emails with workshop specifics. Ask parents to accompany their students to the classroom to sign them in and then again to sign them out.
On the day of the event, student coaches should arrive 30 minutes early. Remind them about appropriate behavior and language and encourage them to begin with positive comments when giving feedback. Emphasize that any problems must be reported to you immediately. Throughout the classroom, leave empty seats for elementary students around each high schooler. During the workshop, your high school coaches will break into small groups with the younger students and help them execute the skills you present. The elementary students will then perform for the entire group.
The activities must be short, fast, and fun! Moving quickly means you won’t need a recess. We let the students have a snack as they write their speeches with the high schoolers. I typically provide graham crackers, whole mandarin oranges, and water.
Gay Brasher is an eight-diamond coach and member of the NSDA Hall of Fame. She received the James M. Copeland Coach of the Year award in 2001. Her Leland High School squad is one of the largest in the nation and won the Bruno E. Jacob / Pi Kappa Delta Trophy in 2016.
One of the most distinguishing aspects of Lincoln-Douglas Debate (LD) is its exploration of philosophy. It’s not merely about presenting facts or policy solutions but about delving deep into the moral justifications that underpin those arguments. Anyone new to the format may find navigating the intricate web of values, value criteria, and frameworks daunting! But with the lens of literature as a guide, we can untangle these complex threads and truly understand the essence of philosophical debate. Use this brief overview to build your base understanding of key philosophies in debate or share it with students.
At its core, a “value” is what’s most important in a LincolnDouglas debate round. While often abstract, it embodies the foundational principle that each debater believes the resolution hinges upon. There’s a common misconception that values are static in nature and cannot be influenced by perspective or literature. In reality, values can be interpreted in numerous ways depending on philosophical backgrounds and scholars. To illustrate, let’s delve into some key values and how literature can redefine their understanding.
In the grand amphitheaters of ancient Greece, Socrates famously declared, “An unexamined life is not worth living.” For Socrates, moral righteousness comes from within, from self-examination, and from understanding the essence of virtues. Simply put, Socratic morality asks each individual to become their own moral compass.
In contrast, John Rawls, a trailblazer in modern political philosophy, steers the conversation in a different direction. In his book, A Theory of Justice, Rawls introduced the concept of “Justice as Fairness,” arguing that a just society is one
where institutions and social structures work to ensure fair opportunities and rights for everyone. For Rawls, morality is about a well-ordered society ensuring the fair distribution of goods and opportunities. It’s justice within a social structure rather than an internal introspection.
When debating: Choose Socratic ideals when emphasizing personal introspection or individual responsibility. Lean on Rawls when your arguments are centered on societal structures and their importance in shaping a moral course of action.
Plato’s Virtuous Hierarchy vs. Locke’s Social Contract
Picture a well-tuned orchestra, with each musician playing their part to perfection. That’s Plato’s vision of justice: each element of society doing its job without interfering with others, creating a harmonious symphony of balance and fairness. Throughout his work, The Republic, he argued that justice is a state of order within an individual and society. On the flip side, John Locke, a luminary of the Enlightenment era, placed justice within a societal context. As outlined in his book, Two Treatises of Government, justice revolves around the balance of rights and obligations—in essence, what’s fair. For Locke, justice isn’t merely a concept; it is a tangible aspect of society, safeguarded by laws and legal systems. In this view, individuals don’t get to decide what’s “just” for them, but rather their rights are defined and protected by the laws and institutions of the society in which they live.
When debating: Go for Plato’s interpretation of justice when the resolution emphasizes moral choices, individual actions, or ethical dilemmas. Alternatively, opt for Locke’s perspective when the debate hinges on systems—whether that’s governmental, societal, or legal.
Jean-Jacques Rousseau, another prominent Enlightenment thinker, believed that people in their natural state were inherently good. However, he argued that society was responsible for the corruption of their inherent goodness. In his work, The Social Contract, Rousseau asserts that true equality can only be achieved through an agreement
wherein individuals surrender their individual rights for the collective good.
Conversely, John Stuart Mill, a 19th-century British philosopher, argued in his work, On Liberty, that individual freedom was paramount. For Mill, the path to equality lay in the protection of individual rights and liberties, especially the freedom of speech and expression, which should only be limited when it causes direct harm to others.
When debating: Choose Rousseau’s perspective when suggesting that surrendering certain rights or freedoms can foster broader societal equality. Alternatively, embrace Mill’s viewpoint when arguing that upholding individual rights and liberties is essential for realizing equality.
Whereas values serve as the guiding ideals in a debate, value criteria function as the practical benchmarks to evaluate the degree to which these values are achieved (or the best method for how to achieve them). They bridge the gap between the abstract and the concrete, ensuring that philosophical ideals can be measured in real-world scenarios. Value criteria are more flexible than values; while values must be tied to a core principle prompted by the topic, a diverse array of value criteria can be used to achieve that value.
For example, let’s consider the NSDA’s September/October topic, Resolved: The United States ought to guarantee the right to housing. From the perspective of justice as presented by Locke, justice is about the balance of rights and obligations. Locke argues that the primary role of government is to safeguard the natural rights of its citizens, among which is the right to life. Without adequate housing, the right to life and well-being of a person can be gravely compromised. By guaranteeing the right to housing, the U.S. would be upholding its obligation to protect these natural rights. Therefore, a potential value criterion for this resolution could be the “Protection of Natural Rights.” At that point, any stance or argument in the debate should be evaluated based on whether it effectively safeguards and promotes these inherent rights, with housing being a pivotal aspect of this protection.
You’ve chosen a value and its corresponding interpretation. You’ve researched an awesome value criterion that benchmarks your value premise. Now, let’s put it all together!
The framework is essentially the blueprint of your argument. It’s where you define the key terms, set the boundaries for the debate, and lay out the role of the judge’s ballot. Think of it as constructing a house: the value is the foundation, the criterion is the structure, the framework is the finished design with all its intricate details, and the contentions are the brick and mortar that support the house’s strength and stability.
It is common for your framework to fall into one of two categories deontological ethics or utilitarianism. Immanuel Kant pioneered deontological ethics, which centers on deciding if actions are morally right or wrong in and of themselves, without considering their results. In contrast, utilitarianism, developed by Jeremy Bentham and refined by John Stuart Mill, evaluates actions based on their results, striving for the greatest overall happiness or well-being.
As an example, let’s continue our analysis on the housing topic.
• Affirmative: deontological framework
• Value: Lockean justice
• Value criterion: protection of natural rights
In support of the resolution, the affirmative stance adopts a deontological approach, arguing that housing is more than a mere utility—it’s a fundamental right. This perspective aligns with Lockean justice by drawing upon the principles of individual liberties and property rights, which are integral to the American social and political fabric. Additionally, framing the value criterion as the protection of natural rights offers a clear way to judge policy proposals: the extent to which a guaranteed right to housing upholds individuals’ inherent rights. Simply stated, deontological ethics prioritize inherent rights and moral obligations without focusing solely on the consequences or outcomes of an action.
For a more in-depth exploration, check out our free NSDA Learn courses, Intro to Philosophy in Debate and Intro to Framework, available at www.speechanddebate.org/learn
The Round Status dashboard (figure 1) in Tabroom.com allows tournament administrators to have a bird’s-eye view of what is happening in each competition room without having to physically check in to those rooms.
When tournaments were primarily held online, the status dashboard used red dots that automatically turned green when participants entered the online competition room. This allowed room checkers
to prioritize which online rooms they checked on first and gave tournament hosts the ability to have a general sense of when rounds were actually beginning in all events.
The status dashboard also included the ability to find when judges pushed “start round,” when ballots were submitted, and a button to communicate directly with missing participants all from one screen.
As tournaments began to transition back to in-person competition, new features were added to the status dashboard to assist in-person tournament staff in achieving these same goals!
To find the status dashboard, navigate to your tournament in Tabroom.com and go to the Tabbing » Status » Round Status tab. Select the event, timeslot, and round number you would like to check on using the dropdown menus.
• The “Ev” column shows the event in question.
• The “Sct” column numbers the individual rooms in that event.
• The “Rm” column shows a video link to online competition rooms or the room number for in-person tournaments.
• The “Aff,” “Neg,” and “Judges” columns show the participants in that round. They will be listed according to the coding convention chosen in your tournament settings, but you can also see their full names by hovering over their codes. A red dot will appear next to each entry and judge. If competition is using NSDA Campus, their dot will automatically turn green when they enter the room.
• The green flag icon column will automatically change from an orange square to a green star when the judge(s) in that section have all pressed “start round”.
• NEW: The thumb icon column defaults to thumbs down. When selected, it will change to a thumbs up.
• The checkered flag icon will appear next to each room once all ballots in that room are entered and confirmed.
• When NSDA Campus is used, the # column shows the total count of people who entered the online competition room.
• The “Poke” column allows you to text any missing competitors or judges in that room. The text will ask them to report to their round.
• There are special icons that exist to allow you to control which rooms appear on the dashboard. If you are only concerned about rooms in which you are missing competitors and/or judges, use the green checkmark icon above the table to change the view and hide rooms that have all participants present. If you are most concerned about judges pressing the “start round” button to acknowledge their future assignment, use the blue star icon above the table to hide rooms in which judges have pressed “start round”. If you’re running a flighted event, a dropdown will appear to hide each flight from the table.
• There are two options to control who receives the “please report to round” text message when missing participants in a room are poked.
• At Settings » Events » Online, you can enable a setting to “Poke only judges”. This setting can also be found on the status dashboard itself. This will not send the text message to students in that event, even if they are missing from round. This can be useful for events like Extemp in which judges typically report to the room before students.
• Also at Settings » Events » Online, you can enable a setting to “Track Entries not Individuals.” This will show one dot for a team on the status dashboard instead of one dot per individual that is part of the team. This can be useful for online competition when, in Duo, for example, teammates are typically sharing one device and the second partner is unlikely to enter the room under their own account. The dot will turn green on the status dashboard when at least one partner from a team joins the room.
• Selecting any of the icons on screen will manually change them. Selecting the red dot next to a judge, for example, will turn it green. Selecting the orange square icon will mark a judge’s ballot as started.
• Many tournaments continued using the Round Status dashboard when they moved to in-person competition! When tournament staff checks a room, they can manually change a red dot to a green dot to note who is present, and they can still poke participants who have red dots on the screen. The thumbs up column is also helpful for room checkers to send notice to their tab staff that a room has fully started their round.
Welcome to a new competition year! We are pleased to bring back to Rostrum our series of articles about event rules compared to norms of our activity. You may want to review last spring’s articles on evidence rules in debate as well as our discussion of interpretation, limited preparation, and public address events.
These articles do not contain a comprehensive review of all rules and norms of any given event. Be sure to consult the latest Unified Manual to ensure you have the most up-todate information as rules change from year to year (and norms are constantly changing). Our hope is that these articles spark some terrific discussion on your team, in tab rooms, and in judges’ lounges during your tournaments this year!
Rules are composed to ensure fairness and clarity in our events. Our manual contains rules to ensure uniform and fair standards for debate. Some states or organizations may have rules that differ from the NSDA manual. Be sure to review tournament invitations and state association event rules to ensure you are in compliance.
There are many more unwritten rules, or norms, that become common practices in Congressional Debate. Some coaches, judges, and students may believe that norms are actually rules as they encounter them frequently. For example, NSDA rules do
not have a “minimum cycle rule” in which a certain number of speakers must present on a given side of legislation before a vote can be held. However, if the docket order and agenda are preset, there may be a requirement that the chamber consider every item of legislation before moving on to the next. In many cases, these become procedural norms that govern how the chambers function. These norms vary from region to region (and even tournament by tournament).
Let’s take a look at some examples to help us understand where these differences of interpretation and application may apply.
The process of establishing a docket and agenda (the bills, resolutions, and constitutional amendments on which students will speak) is an area where rules, procedures, and behavioral norms may come into conflict with each other.
Many tournaments will ask teams to submit items of legislation prior to the tournament. A tournament official or group of coaches may review the legislation and select preferred bills, resolutions, and amendments and create a PDF so that coaches and students can see the docket on the tournament website. This PDF may determine a specific agenda order for the legislation in advance of the tournament, such as which pieces of legislation will occur during semifinal or final rounds of debate.
In other cases, the tournament director may simply take all legislative items and post them online for all to see and use in their sessions. Students may then be asked to create a docket for their specific chamber just prior to the start of the first session. Each chamber may set its own agenda.
There are no right or wrong ways to construct dockets or set agendas. Most practices are spelled out in tournament invitations to avoid confusion and ensure fairness. Common trends today in Congressional
Debate include smaller docket sizes to make the research and preparation stages more manageable, in particular among smaller programs that do not have a large team of debaters to spread out the work.
Larger teams, or well-known speakers by reputation, may also have considerable influence on setting agendas, creating a voting bloc which can prevent others from participating in deliberation. As a result, many tournaments now establish everything in advance— the order, minimum and maximum deliberation times on legislation, and an inability to suspend the rules to avoid specific pieces of legislation (and therefore prioritize others).
Some tournaments use only NSDA-authored legislation (posted online before the first day of each month) so that all schools have access to the same legislation to avoid authorship privileges and bias. Other tournaments ask schools to vote on legislation, submitted by the schools (one school, one vote), so that tournamentspecific legislation can be used and the students consider what they most want to debate.
If the tournament invitation does not detail the specifics, be sure to ask! In most cases, these are determined by norms, not rules.
While some tournaments may encourage Congressional Debate judges to have paradigms, they are not essential to student success in the event, and may even be detrimental. It is important to recognize that, while Congressional Debate functions as a debate event (complete with refutation, extension, and cross examination), operationally it is a speech event.
Congress sessions are sectioned, not paired. Students are ranked, not awarded wins and losses. Vote tallies are important only from a procedural perspective and not considered in the decision-making of the judges. Discussion on legislative agendas may be nuanced, and questioning can occur on any legislation, on any element of the debate, without regard for whether the student must affirm or negate a resolution with its accompanying burdens of proof and rejoinder.
This does not make Congressional Debate any “better” or “worse” than any other format of debate or speaking. It is simply unique, and judge paradigms may restrict a debater’s ability to engage freely in what makes Congressional Debate such a unique event.
In most formats of debate, for example, judge expectations and considerations are specific to that event. Students
engage in a single topic, for the duration of each tournament, for at least one month of tournaments at a time. Judging considerations may include references to accepted styles of debating, including rapid pace of delivery and theoretical perspectives on a specified resolution.
In contrast, Congressional Debate features students addressing multiple bills and resolutions in an environment which must exercise formal order. Bills, resolutions, and amendments may be unique or even hypothetical (to some extent), but students must engage those topics with due consideration of cost, implementation, jurisdiction, and enforcement. Expecting 12-20 students to adapt legislation for a panel of three judges, with scorers typically changing from session to session, is not practically feasible (and the paradigms themselves may not contain burdens that are achievable).
Congress speeches must organize insightful analysis of research as it applies to the issue at-hand, delivered in a compelling way. While considering all these variables, judges also must weigh the performance of the presiding officer. All these factors make ranking much more nuanced than a list of preferences.
Although it is discouraged, some tournaments must use
school-affiliated judges (or create imbalances with larger entry sizes placed in specified sections so that clean judges can be made available for other chambers).
As you can see, while judge paradigms can be useful in other formats of debate, they may do more harm than good in Congressional Debate.
Congressional Debate is governed by rules (such as NSDA rules or state-level rules) and then, typically, refer participants to Robert’s Rules of Order, Newly Revised, current edition, in particular with regard to the order of motions and voting requirements for passage. Thus, there is a provision to suspend the rules, by motion, if the chamber concurs.
For example, the rules may state that a student must not leave the session unless permission is requested and granted by the presiding officer. A very common motion is to move to suspend the rules to have an open chamber. If a student needs to use the restroom, for example, they are free to leave the room. A variation on this motion used by one state is to suspend the rules for unlimited personal privilege. Suspending the rules for open chambers allows students to move about freely. For example, legislation or a specific example used by a debater may trigger a reaction among students.
Some tournaments declare that all sessions are open, and students may freely leave and enter the chamber at any time, which means that no such motion to suspend the rules needs to take place. This is an example of how the rules can be suspended to ensure that students receive fair opportunity and treatment.
However, there are cases in which students might try to suspend the rules with a motion that does not exist, either in the official rules of Congressional Debate or Robert’s Rules of Order.
One example is a motion to impeach the presiding officer. No such rule exists. Suspending the rules to enable such a motion creates an unfair playing field in a competitive activity. “They are really good; let’s just vote them out so that we can rank higher” creates a space where such a motion is incentivized in order to win. If the chamber believes the presiding officer to be unfair, a student can appeal to the parliamentarian to address the ethical or procedural violation without the need for impeachment.
If you believe a rule has been violated, make sure you check first. Review the tournament rules and invitation, the NSDA (or tournament governing body) rules, and/or Robert’s Rules of
Order. It is always best to check with tournament officials, in particular if you are a scorer or parliamentarian, to verify that it is a rule violation and to determine the best course of action. It is better to halt the Congressional Debate session for a few minutes and take a brief recess than to assume that it is a rules violation, in particular when so much of Congressional Debate is based upon norms instead of rules.
In many cases, there is a simple corrective action that can be taken. For example, ruling a procedural motion out of order, or asking the presiding officer to reconsider the way they gavel down a voice in the chamber, may address the issue without moving toward disqualification.
If it is clear that a rule has been violated (for example, an evidence violation in Congressional Debate), pause the chamber’s activity and contact the tournament officials for next steps. A student can ask the parliamentarian to consult a tournament official in the event of a rules question. Most tournaments have ombudspeople, who serve as rule arbiters, as well as belonging and inclusion advocates, who can meet
with students and coaches to discuss fairness and determine the best courses of action. A student may move personal privilege to excuse themselves from the chamber to consult with tournament officials to seek out the fairest and best course of action.
Although unlikely, it is possible that a student could be disqualified from competition, in particular if a rule clearly has been broken or a violation of the Code of Honor has taken place. Creating a disruptive environment, chastising one’s opponents, or arguing with judges may result in the student being excused from the chamber for a period of time.
Our primary goal is to make this activity an inclusive one which emphasizes an ability to think critically, argue ethically and responsibly, and persuade effectively. We are all in this activity to learn and grow!
Deano Pape is a competition and events Support Specialist with the NSDA. You can reach him with any questions or comments at deano. pape@speechanddebate.org
May it please the court, counsel, and members of the jury: Throughout our tenures as forensic competitors and coaches, we have often heard parents, students, and teachers say participation in competitive debate cultivates the skills necessary to become proficient lawyers. Undoubtedly, the skills honed by debaters—such as thorough research, persuasive abilities, teamwork, resilience, public advocacy, and the capacity to consider multiple facets of an issue— deepen their understanding of the legal profession.
Recent high-profile legal debates surrounding qualified immunity for police, reproductive rights in light of the Dobbs decision, and the question of holding elected officials accountable for abuses of power have reignited interest in the law (Whitford, 2022).
Furthermore, law schools, recognizing complaints regarding the arbitrary and exclusionary nature of the LSAT, are increasingly considering alternative approaches to admissions, potentially making legal education more accessible in the years ahead (Sloan, 2023).
Mock trial, sponsored by a diverse array of organizations for high school
students (ranging from the Constitutional Rights Foundation, the Gladiator tournament, the MockOn Tournament of Champions, the Empire competitions, and the NHSMTC national championship), is currently experiencing unparalleled popularity at both domestic and international levels.
While the NSDA offers several categories that indirectly support legal education—such as Policy Debate and Congressional Debate—it is now time to rise to the occasion and provide a more direct avenue: a competitive category dedicated to mock trial.
Members of the jury, there are two reasons to find in favor.
First, mock trial outreach will grow our community.
Currently, there are tens of thousands of students
engaged in mock trial tournaments who possess limited knowledge of the NSDA. According to testimony from numerous mock trial coaches, there is little incentive to involve themselves with the NSDA, as they feel the time invested in developing parallel skills at speech and debate competitions does not directly enhance their abilities in areas such as opening statements, closing arguments, understanding rules of evidence, or presenting testimony. This often leads to a situation where mock trial and debate coaches work in opposition, inadvertently distancing students from each other instead of fostering collaboration.
Undoubtedly, speech and debate engagement suffered during the pandemic. Just as Original Spoken Word Poetry
successfully engaged students from organizations like GetLit who would not traditionally participate in speech competitions, the inclusion of a mock trial category can serve as a catalyst for further expansion and outreach. Mock trial expands our community, encouraging legal professionals to participate as coaches, judges, and donors.
Second, mock trial outreach will create unique skill-building opportunities.
There are numerous ways to incorporate a mock trial one-on-one category that adheres to the norms of a first through sixth place speech ballot. MockOn, for instance, explored such a format in a winter 2022 online tournament where students received a comprehensive case packet containing approximately 20 pages of content. Participants were required to analyze the packet and deliver an opening statement, closing argument, and/or constitutional/evidentiary argument. Envision a competition where students receive their case packet a week or so prior to the event, select their
side, gather relevant facts, create demonstratives to engage the jury, and receive rankings based on the effectiveness of their presentation of the shared fact pattern.
Alternatively, for those who prefer limited prep, a captivating variation of Extemporaneous Speaking could be implemented. In this scenario, students are presented with a shorter, 10-page packet just 30 minutes to an hour before their round commences. They must swiftly analyze, memorize, and extemporize in a manner akin to the Top Gun championship, a prestigious law school competition where advocates prepare cases from a 100+ page case packet distributed only one day before the event.
Many speech and debate categories afford students virtually limitless choices. In Impromptu, they can speak about any topic; in Extemp or debate, they can introduce any research they deem appropriate; in public address events, they can choose any thesis; and in interpretation events, they can select any script. Rarely do we challenge students to work with the same set of facts. This is an
“I would love for the NSDA to include mock trial as an event! Mock trial is one of my favorite things to do, and it prepares me for a future in the legal profession. One of the most valuable parts of mock trial is direct/cross-examination. It allows [students] to experience the true trial process, especially the rules of evidence. I think it would be interesting to have events focused on opening and closing, but I defiinitely think there should be an option for teams to participate in a full mock trial. Ideally, this would follow the method of other topic-based events where there is a new case file every one to two months.”
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opportunity to demonstrate creativity while playing with the same toolbox.
There are two intuitive counterarguments. Let’s take them one at a time.
First, some may contend that we would require an abundance of experts, such as lawyers and real-life judges, to evaluate these student performances. This notion is unfounded. Instead, we can provide every mock trial judge with a simplified set of jury instructions and a copy of the case materials given to the students to
review before the first speaker presents. These instructions will orient the judges, ensuring they know what to evaluate. We don’t need legal experts—we need willing jurors.
Second, one might wonder where we would acquire the necessary case materials. Mock trial competitors and coaches are enthusiastic about crafting such cases. For example, the collegiate American Mock Trial Association, comprised of students and coaches, takes pleasure in constructing
Editor’s Note: We asked Student Leadership Council member Jade Young (’24) from Texas to offer her thoughts on adding mock trial as an NSDA event.fact patterns that explore pertinent legal issues and compelling crimes. This proposal presents an opportunity to build bridges between our respective communities.
At this point, we don’t expect to have convinced you beyond a reasonable doubt. We’ll need more evidence from smallerscale tournaments. That’s why we must conduct mock trials of the mock trial category with a pilot program.
We are convinced that, upon carefully reviewing
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all the facts in this case, listening to witnesses, and perusing exhibits, you will arrive at a just verdict—the only verdict supported by the facts, a verdict that acknowledges the value of a mock trial category.
Sloan, K. (2023). ABA will try yet again to eliminate LSAT rule. Reuters. https://www.reuters.com/legal/legalindustry/ aba-will-try-yet-again-eliminate-lsat-rule-2023-02-17/.
Whitford, E. (2022). Among students, lawyers get a good rap. Inside Higher Ed. https://www.insidehighered.com/ news/2022/03/17/student-interest-law-school-grewduring-pandemic.
Dr. Iain Lampert is a two-diamond NSDA coach who lives in Madison, Wisconsin. During his time serving West Los Angeles on the District Committee, he was named the new district chair of the year and led his district to win the district participation award multiple times. He volunteers with UCLA’s mock trial team, which he helped coach to a law school national championship in 2022 and undergraduate national championship in 2023.
Eric PS Chen (M.Div.) is a three-diamond NSDA coach at Gabrielino High School in the East Los Angeles District. He has coached more than 50 CA state semifinalists and finalists, three CA state champions, and more than ten semifinalists and finalists at the NSDA National Tournament in Extemporaneous Speaking. He also coaches mock trial at Gabrielino High School, and his teams have regularly advanced to the elimination rounds of the Los Angeles County Mock Trial Competition, with two teams placing in the top 16 in 2022.
A must have for students returning to school!
One of the most pleasant parts of attending the National Tournament each year is the opportunity to network with other coaches from all over the country, be it during caucuses, in judge hospitality suites, or while tabbing.
But during this year’s tournament, a grave pall cast itself upon these usually chipper reunions: the threat to our activity posed by recent legislation banning instruction and discussion of certain topics pertaining to race and LGBTQIA2S+ [lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer/questioning, intersex, asexual, and two spirit] identities.
The ACLU summarizes the issue best: “Since 2021, 10 states have passed classroom censorship bills that restrict discussions about race and gender in schools. In 2022 alone, state legislatures have introduced 111 new bills across 33 states, many of which explicitly target K-12 schools. These attacks come at a time when various groups— including state lawmakers and local school board officials—are simultaneously pushing to ban books from school and public libraries, primarily books by and about
by W. Kay
BIPOC, LGBTQ people, and other marginalized groups” (ACLU, 2022).
At Nationals, I met coaches from districts coast to coast, north to south, who lamented their inability to do right by their students because of these laws—like a coach from Tennessee, who could not help their Informative speakers deliver their presentation on Critical Race Theory; or a coach from North Dakota, who could not use a piece about a young person coming out of the closet. The laws that led to these limitations are an existential threat to our activity, one rooted in freedom of speech, academic openness, and personal liberties.
The argument in favor of this legislation is fairly straightforward: discussion of these subjects may make students feel guilty or ashamed of their identities, or divide students more than it unites them. This doctrine of “divisive concepts” is enshrined in many of these laws.
Moreover, calls against discussion of LGBTQIA2S+ issues are often rooted in moralism, arguing that these identities are inappropriate for children to hear about— pornographic, even—and may even turn them queer. This last claim is known as “social contagion theory.”
Some of you reading this may even subscribe to or make these arguments yourselves. I hope you
will think seriously as I, a queer, non-binary coach, make as academic and impersonal a response as I am capable of making.
On divisive concepts, spaces of learning must cover them. These divisive issues are at the core of policy debates and personal worldviews. If we are seeking to prepare our students to be engaged thinkers and citizens, we must instruct on these divisive issues and allow students to craft their own positions on them.
On moralism, I strongly affirm every person’s right to their own personal moral code. However, one’s moral code cannot restrain another’s ability to formulate their own in a democratic, classically liberal society. Tolerance for moral difference is at the heart of the noble American project, and we cannot allow the First Amendment to be eroded in the way in which these bills intend.
Beyond that classically liberal position, social contagion theory is
largely bunk, as a study published in the medical journal Pediatrics proves, and the study upon which social contagion theory is based has been repeatedly discredited (Turban, et al., 2022; Serano, 2023). Serano’s piece also serves as a useful compendium of all the evidence against social contagion theory.
While I hope this intellectual approach compels you, I would be remiss to not make a personal appeal: I am just like you. I am an educator, teaching students from grades 5 through 12. I am a coach, whose program is made up of students of all colors, creeds, and identities. I am a citizen, a voting American who believes in this country’s great potential. Yes, I am queer. But I am all that and more, and I am committed to the integrity of our activity and of our nation. These bills undermine both.
I find myself writing from a liminal space: privileged to be white and to live in New York,
where my queer, nonbinary identity and instructional content of all stripes are not tucked away in a closet; yet I’m simultaneously fearful of what may happen to me, my students, and our activity outside of our home state.
This activity to which we commit ourselves is rooted in the power of advocacy. It is in that vein that I encourage you to use your voice for good and advocate
against these laws at all levels: in conversations with colleagues, families and friends; at your city halls and state legislatures. When you hear support for this legislation and the ideologies that undergird it in speech and debate spaces, engage critically, but kindly. Call out your peers, call up your legislators, and call for change. Our activity, and our country, will be stronger and more welcoming for it.
References
“Defending our right to learn.” (2023, February 24). American Civil Liberties Union. https://www.aclu.org/news/freespeech/defending-our-right-to-learn
Serano, J. (2023, May 26). “All the evidence against transgender social contagion.” Medium. https:// juliaserano.medium.com/all-the-evidence-againsttransgender-social-contagion-f82fbda9c5d4
Turban, J. L., et al. (2022, August). “Sex assigned at birth ratio among transgender and gender diverse adolescents in the United States.” Pediatrics 150(3). American Academy of Pediatrics. https://doi.org/10.1542/peds.2022-056567
W. Kay (they/them) is a coach at the Berkeley Carroll School in the New York City District, where they serve on the NSDA District Committee and as the Brooklyn-Queens Regional Director of the New York State Forensic League.
The Brewer Foundation and New York University invite you to compete in the 23rd annual International Public Policy Forum (IPPF)—a one-of-a-kind competition that gives high school students the opportunity to participate in written and oral debates on issues of public policy, while competing for an all-expenses-paid trip to New York City and more than $30,000 in awards and prizes.
The IPPF was founded by the Brewer Foundation in 2001 to provide an opportunity for high school students to sharpen the skills that are fundamental to advocacy: the ability to research a topic of critical importance, synthesize the material, and eloquently argue a position.
“As a former debater, I know that debate teaches students to think critically and to become advocates for their own ideas,” said William A. Brewer III, partner at Brewer, Attorneys and Counselors, and a founder of the IPPF. “With the IPPF, we encourage students to believe in the contributions they can make in any conversation, on all issues—no matter how large.”
Where most debate tournaments focus on the spoken word, the IPPF invites students to spend months debating both sides of a topic through written scholarship and then supplement that scholarship with oral advocacy. During
by Andrea Sadberrythe 2023-2024 competition, students will debate the topic, “Resolved: Governments should provide a universal basic income.”
The competition is open to all schools—public and private—for free. IPPF alumni frequently share that the contest benefitted them academically, but also taught them skills that they have used in their post-collegiate careers.
“My journey in IPPF has been transformative,” said 2023 IPPF World Champion Evelyn Shue of Potomac Oak in Rockville, Maryland. “The annual resolutions, from the merits and drawbacks of artificial intelligence to U.S. dollar hegemony to the efficacy of NATO, offered me an expansive platform for exploring the rich, complex terrain of global policy. The rigorous exercise of understanding societal impacts through various lenses was enhanced by IPPF’s unique blend of written and oral debate formats, which honed my communication skills.”
This year’s competition begins in late October, as teams submit a qualifying round essay affirming or negating the IPPF topic. Judges will review the submissions and score each essay based on, among other things, the presentation of original ideas, the use of credible research, and the cumulative force and effect of the narrative. The top 64 teams are invited to participate in the single-elimination debate tournament.
“The IPPF is a unique opportunity to develop the abilities to deeply analyze a real, impactful issue and express complex
You have debated the best in the nation. Now, it is time to take on the world.
argumentation eloquently,” said 2014 IPPF Champion Andy Yuwen, who competed with teammates from Hamilton High School in Chandler, Arizona, and now serves as an IPPF judge. “With no debate experience prior to the IPPF, I also learned how to quickly adapt to the unfamiliar environments the IPPF exposed me to. As I’ve developed my leadership skills in the years since my IPPF experience, I’ve found those skills invaluable.”
In the round of 64, schools volley essays back and forth via email. Judges review the essays in the order they are presented (affirmative constructive, negative constructive, affirmative rebuttal, negative rebuttal) and select the advancing teams. The written debate process continues for several rounds, as the teams advance to the “Top 32” and “Sweet 16” rounds of competition. The “Elite 8” teams earn an all-expenses-paid trip to the IPPF Finals in New York City, where they compete in a series of oral debates.
“The IPPF Finals brings together critical thinkers, communicators, and problem solvers from all walks of life, and I truly believe in its power to inspire change,” said Shue.
The oral debates in New York are judged by experts in law, business, debate, politics, and academia. Past judges have included Brewer, NYU President Emeritus John Sexton, Council on Foreign Relations President Richard N. Haass, Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI), NASA Astronaut Mike Massimino, and NYU Stern School of Business Dean Raghu Sundaram, among others.
“Nothing in my education has been more formative than participating in the IPPF,” said 2008 and 2009 IPPF champion Andrew Garbarino, who competed with teammates from Bellaire High School in Houston, Texas. “The competition taught me the writing, research, speaking, and analytical skills that have been foundational to my pursuit of a career in academic humanities and church ministry. Perhaps more than that, the people I met through the IPPF—other competitors, judges, organizers— have given me inspiration and mentorship. Over a decade later, I still count many as friends.”
1. Work with your debate coach, English teacher, or Social Studies teacher to form a team of at least three students, then go to www.ippfdebate.com and register your team.
2. Next, prepare a qualifying round essay affirming or negating the topic, “Resolved: Governments should provide a universal basic income.” Essays are limited to 3,000 words, not including the title page or Works Cited page(s).
3. Qualifying round essays must be submitted by noon CST on October 25, 2023, to ippf@brewerfoundation.com Essays will be reviewed by a panel of judges comprised of attorneys, business leaders, collegiate debaters, and former IPPF champions.
4. The Top 64 teams will be announced on November 8, 2023. These teams begin a single-elimination, written debate tournament, with one school affirming the resolution and the other negating it. Essays are volleyed back and forth via email. In December, judges will blindly review the essays in the order they were submitted and select the advancing teams. This process continues until the final eight teams are named on April 1, 2024.
5. Pack your bags! The final eight teams earn an all-expensespaid trip to New York City to compete in the IPPF Finals on May 4, 2024. During the finals, teams supplement their written advocacy with oral argumentation—debating in front of some of the world’s foremost experts in debate, business, law, and politics. The IPPF World Champion wins a $10,000 grand prize and the Brewer Cup!
Andrea Sadberry is the IPPF Executive Director. (opposite) The team from Potomac Oak in Rockville, Maryland, was crowned the 2023 IPPF World Champion, pictured with NYU President Emeritus John Sexton (left) and William A. Brewer III, managing partner at Brewer, Attorneys & Counselors (right).countries and achieved an impressive record of seven wins and one loss. This preliminary record allowed the team to break as second seed out of 65 teams.
Following preliminary rounds, Team USA advanced directly to the octafinals, where they faced Team New Zealand. After winning on a 5-0 decision, Team USA debated Team Hong Kong in quarterfinals (6-1 decision), then Team Malaysia in semifinals (9-0 decision), before reaching the final round of the tournament.
“As the captain of the team this year, I often wondered how we would come together and what we’d look like on a big stage like the WSDC,” said Menon. “This team was incredibly special; it’s almost beyond words. I could always count on my teammates to show up and show out every round. I’m so proud of how we performed.”
Coach Aaron Timmons echoed this sentiment.
On July 29, after 12 rounds of competition, the USA Debate team emerged victorious at the 2023 World Schools Debating Championships (WSDC) and members were declared world champions.
This year’s delegation consisted of Ollie Braden (’23), Ambika Grover (’23), Chelsea Hu (’24), Vinayak Menon (’23), Sungjoo Yoon (’23), and alternate Alex Lee (’24). The last time the U.S. won the championship was in 1994.
Established in 1988, the WSDC has grown to become the international community’s premier debate event. It brings together high school students from around the world with each nation allowed one team. This year’s tournament was held in Hanoi, Vietnam, and marks the first in-person WSDC tournament since Thailand in 2019.
The tournament began with eight preliminary rounds, where Team USA faced teams from different
In the final round, Team USA debated their longtime friends from Team Canada on the motion, “This House prefers a world ruled by a benevolent AI programmed to maximize utility by calculating the actions most guaranteed to reduce the greatest global suffering.” After a nuanced and sophisticated debate, Team USA secured the victory on a 7-4 decision.
According to captain Vinayak Menon, the victory at WSDC felt incredibly gratifying.
“The intersection of both representing your country in an activity in which you love, and competing against the best and brightest from around the world, halfway around the world, was an amazing experience—in a word, surreal,” he said.
Coach Cindi Timmons thought from the beginning of the season that this might be the team that could pull off the championship.
“Nine previous years of USA Debate teams, under the sponsorship of the NSDA, paved the way for this talented group to win the entire thing,” she said. “Our team is a family,
and the alumni were celebrating the victory along with us. This win is particularly meaningful, not only because of the accomplishment of these amazing team members, but also because it represents the conclusion of a decade of Aaron and I leading the USA Debate program.”
On top of impressive team results, the team also received many individual speaker awards. All five speakers were ranked in the top 30 individual speakers, with Hu placing 11th, Grover placing 24th, Menon placing 26th, Yoon placing 29th, and Braden placing 30th.
The WSDC offered much more than just a competitive arena; it became an enriching experience both in and out of rounds. When the debates were complete, both Team USA and opposing teams received excellent feedback and suggestions from a variety of coaches and alumni. Representing diverse backgrounds and debating styles, these mentors helped
debaters fine-tune their content, strategy, and style.
“Receiving international feedback throughout the World Schools Debating Championships was an invaluable experience,” said Yoon. “It provided us with fresh insights and perspectives that we might not have considered otherwise. This constant exchange of ideas not only allowed us to refine our arguments on the spot but also contributed to our overall growth as debaters.
the competition.”
Outside of rounds, the event’s organizers also arranged parties and social gatherings, which added an element of camaraderie to the competition. From large dinner events to beachthemed parties, Team USA had the chance to interact with delegations from around the world. These events allowed debaters to unwind, make friends,
Watch the final round between Team USA and Team Canada!
www.tinyurl.com/mz6xzam7
and bond over shared experiences.
“Everyone was so cool and fun to talk to,” said Braden. “It just made every round feel so much more engaging. We got to give each other little gifts such as key chains and pins that had our national flags on them after rounds. That was really sweet.”
The journey to success for Team USA at the WSDC involved dedicated
It’s incredible how the power of international feedback enabled us to improve even just during(left) Ambika Grover placed 24th among the individual top speakers at the 2023 WSDC. • (middle) Sungjoo Yoon and Alex Lee proudly display their USA swag during a WSDC event. • (right) Vinayak Menon served as captain of the USA Debate team.
preparation and structured training. In addition to the team’s regular weekly meetings during the debating season, Team USA attended an intensive weeklong training specifically dedicated to the WSDC at Simpson College in Indianola, Iowa.
During the weeklong session, head coaches Aaron and Cindi Timmons, along with assistant coach Aditya Dhar, played a key role in honing the team’s skills. The guidance of other USA alumni added another layer of experience and expertise to the preparation process.
The team engaged in multiple practice rounds and speech redos each day, tackling a diverse array of topics. In addition to practice rounds, the team
had frequent strategy talks, whether that be in the college classroom or during dinner. These discussions were a chance to dissect different debate scenarios, explore tactics, and refine approaches based on the motions presented.
While the preparation process was intense, team members found it to be critical to their competitive performance.
“We spent hours researching prepared motions and drilling a variety of impromptu motions,” Menon said. Our coaches made sure to work us hard, but in the end, it all paid off.”
Yoon notes that this victory was a culmination of the team’s joint efforts and dedication throughout
the season. For him, each person and each tournament made this possible.
“I think it’s essential to recognize the web of support that led us to this point,” he said. “Our coaches were there every step of the way. The alumni shared their wisdom, and the entire team worked tirelessly throughout the entire season.”
The WSDC stood apart from other competitions in several distinctive ways. Its global nature and extended duration demanded Team USA’s adaptation to achieve their best performance. Unlike any other event, the WSDC was a true test of both versatility and endurance.
One of the ways the team effectively adapted was by accommodating different judging styles. Recognizing that judges hail from various backgrounds and cultures, the team tailored their arguments and
presentations to resonate universally. This nuanced approach allowed them to connect more effectively with the judging panel.
“We knew going into the competition that it was important to adapt and reach international judges,” Menon said. “As Americans, we grow up with a culture and education that’s U.S.-centric. Part of shedding those biases is keeping up with the news in regions outside the U.S. and exposing ourselves to diverse ideologies and dogmas.”
As the graduating members of the 2022-2023 team pass the torch, they offer encouragement and hope for the next generation of Team USA debaters.
“I’m so proud of how we performed,” said Menon. “I wish the best of luck for all future USA teams.”
Head coach Aaron Timmons, head coach and team manager Cindi Timmons, and assistant coach Aditya Dhar led the 2023 team to victory.
Members of USA Debate pause for a photo op in Vietnam: (back row) Vinayak Menon from Lambert High School, GA; Ambika Grover from Greenwich High School, CT; Alex Lee (alternate) from Harvard-Westlake School, CA; Ollie Braden from Jackson-Reed High School, D.C.; (front row) Sungjoo Yoon from Burbank Senior High School, CA; Chelsea Hu from Phillips Academy, MA.
Why did you join your speech and debate team in high school?
My English teacher recommended that I take debate as an elective, perhaps because I seemed bored! Once I did so, I was immediately drawn to the tournaments, events, and community of speech. That said, I wasn’t very good at first! But I kept trying and eventually got better.
compiled by Amy SeidelmanDAVID HENRY HWANG
is a playwright, screenwriter, television writer, and librettist whose stage works includes the plays M. Butterfly, Chinglish, Yellow Face, Kung Fu, Golden Child, The Dance and the Railroad, and FOB, as well as the Broadway musicals Aida (co-author), Flower Drum Song (2002 revival), and Disney’s Tarzan . David is a Tony Award winner and three-time nominee, a three-time OBIE Award winner, and a two-time Finalist for the Pulitzer Prize.
Our records indicate you graduated from high school in 1975. What events did you compete in at Harvard-Westlake?
My story is a little unusual. I attended a public high school (San Gabriel High School) in Southern California for my frosh–junior years. It was at SGHS that I first started debating. I also attended summer debate camps hosted by the University of Southern
California, where I placed first at debate between my junior and senior years. At that point, I was recruited to transfer to a private high school—which was then called The Harvard School (now Harvard-Westlake)— because their squad needed an equally skillful partner for their top debater. In addition to debate, I competed in Extemporaneous Speaking, Impromptu Speaking, and Dramatic Interpretation.
Do you have any favorite memories from your time in speech and debate?
During my senior year, my partner and I won 10 out of 12 tournaments for Harvard
School, which was of course very satisfying. But my fondest memories involve the sense of community I gained interacting with smart, articulate, likeminded students from high schools all around the city, state, and country. I’ve kept in touch with many of these friends, now for almost 50 years. Moreover, even today when I meet folks who also debated in Los Angeles around the same time, we share a special bond. Just this past weekend, I was attending a gala when someone came up to me and said, “I debated you in high school!” I asked, “Did you win?” He replied, “Yes, and it’s one of the highlights of my life!”
We asked several alumni to share how the skills they learned in speech and debate contributed to their success as playwrights, speechwriters, authors, and more.David Henry HWANG
Many writers struggle to articulate their thoughts and life experiences before a large gathering, so those of us who have participated in speech and debate gain a natural advantage.”
Tell us about your journey to become a playwright and screenwriter. What inspired you to pursue playwriting as a young adult?
I saw some plays my senior year in high school and frosh year of college and thought, “Maybe I can do that.” I attended Stanford, which at the time didn’t have playwriting classes. So I just started writing plays in my spare time. I found a professor who was willing to take a look at them. He told me they were really bad (which they were!). He was a good guy who helped me design a playwriting major through the English department. During senior year, I wrote a play called FOB to be performed in the lobby of my dormitory. Fourteen months later, it opened Off-Broadway at NYC’s Public Theater, and I began to have a career.
You’ve written eight Broadway shows, are a Tony Award winner and three-time nominee, a three-time OBIE Award winner, a Grammy Award winner who has been twice nominated, and a three-time finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in Drama. Did anything from your speech and debate training or experience contribute to your excellence in these endeavors?
I have found my speech and debate training incredibly helpful to my career as a playwright. First, dramatic writing most often involves creating characters with differing perspectives, life experiences, and points of view. Debate trains our minds to encompass opposing viewpoints, a necessary component of scriptwriting.
comes relatively easily to those of us trained in public speaking.
Third, if we are fortunate enough to have a career, we are often called to speak about our work in public, to audiences, students, donors, etc. Again, many writers struggle to articulate their thoughts and life experiences before a large gathering, so those of us who have participated in speech and debate gain a natural advantage.
Our organization champions youth advocacy. If you could call our students’ attention to any one issue you’ve emphasized or addressed through your creative works, what would it be?
where the AAPI actors of that day, who were few in number and had little power, protested in front of the Public Theater. The Public’s founder, Joseph Papp, arguably the most important theatrical producer of the last half of the 20th century, was committed to creating a theatre which “looked like New York.” He invited the protesters into his office and hired one of them onto his staff with the assignment to find plays for Asian actors. It was fairly soon afterward that my play came across his desk.
www.speechanddebate.org/
Second, a huge part of TV and screenwriting in particular requires us to “pitch:” go into a room with producers or executives and verbally sell them on your project so they will back it. This is a very different skill than writing itself, one which many screenwriters struggle to master, but
Throughout my career, I have been a passionate advocate for increasing diversity and inclusion both onstage and off. I think it’s worth mentioning how my college dormitory play ended up a year later at New York’s most prestigious theatre. About the time I was writing FOB, the Public produced a play in which a white actor was cast in an Asian role. This led to the first “yellow face” protests in New York theatre history,
So, I am the beneficiary of affirmative action: Joe identified a social need, created a program to address it, and I was the person who got to walk through those doors. Therefore, I remain a staunch advocate of affirmative action, as well as community protests and BIPOC solidarity as a means to help to dismantle white patriarchy in America.
Do you have any speech and debate mentors you would like to thank?
My debate coach at SGHS was Dorothea Stamaris. At Harvard, my coaches were Tedd Woods and King Schofield.
You were an NSDA member from 2013 to 2017. What events did you compete in at Sumner Academy of Arts and Sciences in Kansas?
I did a variety of events— Congress, Policy, Public Forum, Extemporaneous Speaking, Impromptu Speaking, Poetry, Prose, Oratory, POI, Informative, Lincoln-Douglas Debate, and a little Dramatic Interp.
(Editor’s note: Michael was also a finalist for NSDA Student of the Year.) In addition to the NSDA, I competed in the National Association of Urban Debate League, NIETOC, and NCFL tournaments, then went on to compete in college as well.
Do you have any favorite memories from your time in speech and debate?
MICHAEL FRANKLIN
is the Founder and Chief Thought Leadership Officer of Words Normalize Behavior
LLC, a Black and Queer-owned communications and strategic engagement firm dedicated to ensuring your language, strategy, and executive communications meet the moment. Serving as the Executive Director of Speechwriters of Color, a proud graduate of Howard University, and a member of Gen Z, Michael has established himself as a credible leader in executive communications and strategic engagement.
Waking up at 5:00 a.m. on Saturdays to take buses to tournaments and seeing that progress into skill building! In particular, I recall a tournament at Missouri Western—I was in a partner event, and my partner got sick the morning of the tournament. Jamelle Brown, my coach, suggested I could “go maverick” and compete by myself, no pressure to win. I ended up winning the entire tournament, taking top speaker and winning in finals. It was exhausting going through all the rounds being the sole speaker, but it was also a big moment of pride.
Tell us about your journey to Founder and Executive Director of Speechwriters of Color, a communications and strategic engagement organization. What inspired you to create this organization?
When I competed, people used to say “you can’t go pro in speech and debate.” But in college, we were invited to a professional speechwriters association world conference, and I thought, “Yes, you can!” The difference is you are writing for other people and not yourself. I also realized there weren’t a lot of people who looked like me at speechwriting events. Amazing Black and Brown kids
were winning national speech and debate championships and doing great things but not writing for our nation’s leaders, nonprofits, and government. At that conference, I asked folks in the room if they knew any Black speechwriters, and folks would tell me they could count them on one hand. I knew that was inaccurate, and I was determined to find a solution. That led me to organize a symposium at Howard University in 2018, where I brought people together to raise awareness about the work, and eventually resulted in Speechwriters of Color.
Nitty gritty speech and debate skills help, but the other thing that prepared me was engaging in nontraditional debate, because as a speechwriter, you want to be a strategist.”
Did anything from your speech and debate training or experience contribute to your excellence in these endeavors?
I’m a speechwriter, a strategist, an advocate—I get to do that every single day. The work and competition I did in speech and debate drove me directly to this. I get to talk to leaders, give them recommendations on what they should say, how they should say it, and why they should say it. It’s some of the best work in the world!
Nitty gritty speech and debate skills help, but the other thing that prepared me was engaging in nontraditional debate, because as a speechwriter you want to be a strategist. You push the person you are writing for to be the best they can—you are a thought partner, not a scribe. You aim to expand the range of their thought and leadership and develop messages that connect with multiple audiences. I still use the framework and outline from Extemporeanous Speaking for pieces like an op-ed or a video script.
Because of speech and debate, I understand structure and audience and
have multiple rhetorical tools at my disposal. A lot of speechwriters don’t have the speaking experience— but as speakers, we former competitors know how to deal with nerves, take over a room, even use a speech triangle! If you have speaking experience in addition to writing, your contributions are even more valuable executives have never heard some of the advice I can offer.
What advice would you give to speech and debate students who are interested in pursuing speechwriting?
Participating in college, specifically at an HBCU, was very valuable to me. Howard University is home to so many greats, like Vice President Kamala Harris (who was on the speech team there), Chadwick Boseman, and Thurgood Marshall. When I came to college, I told myself I was going to take a break from speech and debate, because it was a lot. I started in mock trial, but immediately my coach recruited me for the speech and debate team, too. It was just as meaningful as high school debate, but we also had
opportunities to do some exhibition events for larger audiences without the constant stress of needing to win.
The first lesson I’ve learned—everybody and their mama has a speechwriter! Leaders across all industries, from mayors to senators, executive vice presidents to CEOs, employ people to write what they speak. It may not be an explicit speechwriting role, but there is almost always someone writing their remarks, company wide emails, and more. Higher education uses them a lot, and superintendents in school districts are starting to use speechwriters more. There is so much opportunity out there! You already are just as qualified if not more so than a lot of professionals.
Find opportunities for yourself. Talk to a boss, friend, local nonprofit, or even a professor going to a conference—see if you can help them organize their remarks or thoughts. Paid work is always the best path forward, but volunteer opportunities early on get reps under your belt. Having experience plus your speech and debate background puts you way ahead.
Look at opportunities to develop professionally. Speechwriters of Color offers master classes and public events open to everyone. The Political Speechwriter’s Companion includes formatting and templates that work anywhere. Read speeches, especially anthologies of speeches and essays like “Sister Outsider” by Audre Lorde or “Speaking While Female” by Dana Rubin.
Do you have any speech and debate mentors you would like to thank?
Jamelle Brown, Hall of Fame head coach and advisor at Sumner Academy of Arts and Sciences; Attorney Angela Minor, mock trial and speech and debate coach at Howard University; Karen Romang, Extemp coach and critical thinking czar at Sumner Academy of Arts and Sciences.
You currently serve as the head coach for El Cerrito High School in California. How did you first get into speech and debate?
Speech and debate was definitely not something that came naturally to me. I first got into speech and debate when a group of high school students visited my middle school English class. My close friend, Audrey McIntyre, had a sister who had just taken
third at Nationals in Policy Debate from El Cerrito High, and she enthusiastically urged me to join her at an upcoming summer camp at a local high school.
How are selfexpression, equity, and community voice realized through the activity of speech and debate?
ANNMARIE BAINES, PH.D.
is the Founder and Executive Director of the Bay Area nonprofit The Practice Space and co-author of Amplify Student Voices . In addition to more than 20 years of experience coaching public speaking, she has held faculty positions at San Francisco State University and UC Berkeley. AnnMarie received her Ph.D. in learning sciences from the University of Washington, her teaching credential from Boston Teacher Residency, and a master’s degree in education policy from the Harvard Graduate School of Education.
Public speaking is a lever for equity because it helps people access their own power and bring life to their ideas and identities in a way that connects to their audiences. Speech and debate recognizes that every young person has a different way of expressing their opinions and each of the different formats offers a choice about how they want to express themselves. My favorite part about coaching is guiding their choices about how they want to speak. I love watching young people “try on” different
selves and learn how to connect and listen to diverse views.
In what ways could high school speech and debate as currently practiced better address those outcomes?
Like any activity, the longer it is around, the more entrenched social norms become. In speech and debate, we need to embrace speakers who approach their chosen event in a different way, especially if their style is different from the larger teams that have more support. To do this, we also need better feedback mechanisms that help judges
question their own biases and appreciate what a young person is trying to do (even if they personally would do it differently). It’s also a tough activity for smaller, studentrun teams—not only because of a lack of resources, but the amount of specialized knowledge and administrative support required.
Share a little about the book you coauthored, Amplify Student Voices. Why might a speech and debate educator read it or share it with others?
This book is for anyone who wants to advance equity through speech and debate.
Youth have powerful voices, but too many of them have already been taught that their voice doesn’t matter or that they aren’t good enough.”
It’s helpful for anyone who is getting started with speech and debate, but also for those who want to break the mold and mix up their current practice. Each chapter is grounded in youth stories and experiences, so it is also a great way to inspire discussions with young people about what conditions silence them and what helps them feel like they can be themselves and belong. They should definitely recommend this book to other educators in their building who may not have experience with speech and debate, but who want to integrate it into what they are doing. We’re hoping that this book provides a more cohesive experience of voice development for young people, especially if multiple educators in the same building are using these practices!
Is this the first book you’ve written?
What motivated you to share your work to date in this form?
This is the first book for The Practice Space, but personally my second book! My first book was research about how young people with disabilities develop identities as being smart, capable leaders in activities
like speech and debate. This next book puts the stories of young people front and center, describing what it feels like to be silenced and advice about how to develop their voices. It isn’t enough to value young voices or ask for their input: they need experiences that help them practice and navigate the social and emotional journey of developing what they want to say and how they want to say it. Youth voice relies on oral literacy, which takes time to develop, like reading or writing. All of this is a complex story, so we needed the length and narrative form of a book to share it.
Would you share something awesome, surprising, or challenging about the process of writing and publishing a book?
My colleagues Diana and Caitlin and I wrote this book during the pandemic and at the height of the violence against Asian Americans and the important movements following George Floyd’s
murder. It was challenging, triggering, and upsetting to dig into the ways that oppression is internalized by people of color, particularly when feelings of imposter syndrome become something that is accepted as an individual problem, rather than a societal one. Traditional norms around public speaking too often go unquestioned and can represent assumptions about what success looks like and sounds like and who should be in power.
It was awesome to explore how speech and debate can create a beautiful and joyful alternative to silence, where speaking up can be both healing and transformational. As for writing the book itself, it surprised me how much faster this one was to write. It felt like the book that was always inside me. The process itself was familiar—writing a book is a lot of hurry up and write, then wait, and then make important decisions really fast about your title and cover art. I’m grateful we had a supportive publisher, ASCD, that honored what we wanted to do with the book.
There is a chapter in the book entitled “Expression-Driven Teaching.” Without giving too much away, could you share the main premise of that chapter with our coach educators?
Our third chapter is all about why we need facilitation to diversify the voices that are heard in the classroom and in the world. It describes the need to facilitate communication skill development, relationships, choice and agency, and overall growth. In some ways, it is the chapter that describes what the best coaches already do. Youth have powerful voices, but too many of them have already been taught that their voice doesn’t matter or that they aren’t good enough. Too many have learned that the work involved in learning public speaking isn’t worth it or is too high risk. ExpressionDriven Teaching is all about ways to help young people unlearn silencing. As coaches, many of us work with youth who already feel like their voices are worthy; Expression-Driven Teaching is about expanding who feels this way.
Your organization, The Practice Space, won the NSDA’s Activating Equity Award this year. What’s something The Practice Space does or promotes that other speech and debate organizations can learn from or replicate?
From the very beginning, The Practice Space has always promoted the idea that people should develop their own free, original voices. While a template can be a good place to start, public speaking should not be about who executes the template the best. Instead, we need to aspire to say something important that resonates with our audiences and with our own identities. Many speech and debate organizations do wonderful equity work, especially around increasing access to underserved communities. Our responsibility as a speech and debate community is to also keep an eye on the templates we use—including what is considered a successful speech, what is the required speech length, what prompts we use, how fast people speak, or the weight we place on notetaking, to name a few. We need to ask
ourselves: Who is encouraged to participate because of these templates? Who is silenced? Whose voices are missing in the entire activity?
Have you had any mentors, role models, or pivotal life moments that served as a catalyst for your work?
I was so lucky to have been coached by the late Sanford and Catherine Berman, incredible El Cerrito High coaches who always reminded me to be ambitious while also having perspective.
My dad’s sudden passing in 2015 was a pivotal moment that reminded me to follow my passion and do work in service of the community. For all four years of high school, my dad judged between 15-18 consecutive weekends of speech and debate every year, and he loved being a part of a community that celebrated information, intellect, and quirkiness.
My personal role models are people who have guided my academic path, including my doctoral committee, as well as the women founders that I have met who have created their own businesses and nonprofits from nothing and have seen them flourish in service of those who need it most.
Being a part of the alumni community is a way to inspire others to use the skills they gained from speech and debate to build a life and career they love. These stories have been submitted by members of the alumni community who have pursued careers as authors, journalists, reporters, editors, and more. — compiled by Amber Gracia
North Allegheny Senior High School, Pennsylvania
I’m a culture reporter at HuffPost, where I write about film and television and their intersection with politics. Prior to that, I was a breaking news and national politics reporter at HuffPost. In high school, I competed in Extemporaneous Speaking and Congress, including competing in Congress at the 2011 National Tournament. More than perhaps anything else I did in high school, my speech and debate experience has been integral to my career as a journalist. Being able to process and respond to information quickly and be a critical thinker and active listener are all skills that I honed in speech and debate, and now use in every story I write.”
Without the master class education through speech and debate, I would not have the skills nor confidence necessary to achieve the success I’ve been blessed to experience in and out of my career. As an EMMY Award-winning journalist, I use the power of speech and debate daily through engaging storytelling and challenging discussion.”
Amy Seidelman is the Assistant Executive Director at the NSDA.
I was in the NFL as a high school student at Smith-Cotton High School in Sedalia, Missouri. For 25 years, I coached speech and debate at Parkway Central High School in Chesterfield, Missouri. There, I had the privilege of encouraging talented and hard-working students who have achieved great things. I treasure every moment that I spent with them, and I cherish the example they set for me in my afterteaching career. I’m greatly honored to be among the stellar members of the NSDA Hall of Fame. Everything I have given to speech and debate has multiplied and come back to me many times over. I am now a traditionally published author of historical mysteries, a second career that has made life during the pandemic not only bearable, but enjoyable.”
I have built a life and career based on the fundamentals I learned in speech and debate, and I would not be who I am today without them.
I went from being an All American and nationallyranked International Extemporaneous speaker to getting a degree in international studies and moving abroad directly after university. I’ve lived in Denmark and Singapore since 2002, now over half my life.
I am a TEDx speaker, award-winning author, and communication consultant. I train and coach top-level global leaders to be stronger communicators and presenters across languages and cultures. I teach them the same skills I learned in speech and debate.
I am an advocate for global voices and speak and write about accent bias and linguistic discrimination in multinational corporations. My work has been featured by international media outlets including NPR, ABC, Business Insider, and Quartz.”
Speech and debate has given me the confidence to speak to others boldly and kindly and effectively. In interviews, debates, discussions, and everything in between, I’ve gained the confidence in knowing that speech and debate has provided me the ability to effectively communicate— and listen—in a world that needs it more so than ever. In an interview for an internship with NBC Washington, what caught my future employer’s eye wasn’t necessarily my previous internships, but my experience in speech and debate. After receiving that internship, I now am a published journalist with NBC, CNN, The New York Times, and The Wall Street Journal.”
— Shawn White (’18) Trinity High School, PennsylvaniaWhen you join the alumni community, you can share your story, join us for exclusive alumni webinars, gain access to the alumni community LinkedIn group, and more! Join for free today at www.speechanddebate.org/alumni .
Speech and debate helped shape me as not just an artist or a writer, but as an individual. It helped to build my confidence and my self-esteem, giving me the self-worth I was always looking for. Speech made me realize how much I could really do.”Amber Gracia serves as Alumni Engagement Specialist at the NSDA.
Since the National Speech & Debate Association was founded in 1925, we have enrolled nearly two million members in all 50 states. Many of these members have risen to the pinnacle of their respective fields! Here, we highlight several notable alumni who have taken their speech and debate skills to new heights as authors, screenwriters, filmmakers, and more.
Priya Krishna is a food writer who contributes regularly to The New York Times and Bon Appétit. She is the author of the bestselling cookbook, Indianish, which was named a best cookbook of the year by Eater, NPR, Food & Wine, The New York Times, Bon Appétit, and several others. She is a host on Bon Appétit‘s popular YouTube channel, where she teaches (among other things) the basics of Indian cooking.
(photo credit: Edlyn D’Souza)
Celeste Ng is an American author. Her debut novel, Everything I Never Told You, has won multiple awards, was a New York Times bestseller, Amazon’s #1 Best Book of 2014, and appeared on the Best Book of the Year lists of more than a dozen outlets. Her short story, Girls at Play, won a Pushcart Prize in 2012.
Ng’s second novel, Little Fires Everywhere, tells the story of two families in Shaker Heights, Ohio. The book was an instant New York Times Bestseller and Amazon’s Best Novel of 2017. Her latest novel, Our Missing Hearts, is a New York Times instant bestseller.
(photo credit: Kevin Day)
Here’s a piece I wrote about my own tips for beginning writers (www.writingtipsoasis.com/celeste-ngs-top5-writing-tips/), and here’s an interview with The Writer magazine in which we talk about my writing process and some advice for new writers (www.writermag.com/ writing-inspiration/author-interviews/celeste-ng/). Janet Burroway’s Writing Fiction and Anne Lamott’s Bird by Bird are great books on craft, while for advice on the writing life, Stephen King’s On Writing and Betsy Lerner’s The Forest For the Trees may be helpful. For advice on getting published and on agents, AgentQuery.com is an excellent site—check the “Resources” section at the top for lots of concrete advice.
I’m so glad to hear that! Read a lot—things you love, and also things outside your comfort zone. (Think of it as trying a new food: you don’t have to finish it, but at least take a taste. You never know what will spark new ideas for you.)
Write a lot—like playing an instrument or a sport, it takes practice. Keep at it. Most importantly, tell the stories that are important to you. Write the stories that you’d want to read yourself, the stories you need to tell, the stories you need to hear. It doesn’t matter if they get published or read—it can be great if they do, but writing them down is the important part.
Source: www.celesteng.com/contact
Min Jin Lee is a Korean American writer whose work frequently deals with Korean American topics. Her debut novel Free Food for Millionaires was published in 2007. It was named one of the Top 10 Novels of the Year by The Times. In 2017, Lee released a novel entitled Pachinko, which is an epic historical novel following characters from Korea who eventually migrate to Japan. It is the first novel written for an adult English speaking audience about Japanese Korean culture. The book is on the Best Fiction of 2017 lists from Esquire, Chicago Review of Books, and Amazon. Pachinko was named by The New York Times as one of the 10 Best Books of 2017 and was a finalist for the National Book Award for fiction.
“When I was growing up, I was silent. In high school, I decided to join the debate team to overcome my shyness, then after a year I took public speaking classes.”
Jon Lovett is an American screenwriter, speechwriter, television producer, and podcaster. In 2005, Lovett was hired to write speeches for Hilary Clinton through her 2008 presidential campaign. When Clinton lost the 2008 Democratic primary contest, Lovett won an anonymous contest to write speeches for President Barack Obama in the White House. Lovett wrote speeches in the Obama administration for three years, including policy speeches on financial reform and don’t ask, don’t tell, as well as remarks at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner. After working as a speechwriter, Lovett produced The Newsroom and co-created 1600 Penn. He is a founder of Crooked Media, hosts the podcast Lovett or Leave It, and co-hosts the podcast Pod Save America.
Filmmaker Roberto Orci is a prolific writer and producer across both film and TV. Roberto is the billion dollar filmmaker behind some of the decade’s biggest films including Mission: Impossible III, Eagle Eye, Transformers, Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen, Cowboys and Aliens, and the Star Trek films. He also executive produced the hit romantic comedy The Proposal. His writing and producing credits have grossed more than $4 billion worldwide. Roberto competed in Policy Debate in high school.
“I learned how to think at Spring Woods debate. I learned how to speak, how to find my voice, and how to be myself. Debate teachers are more than teachers.”
Pintip Dunn is a New York Times bestselling author of young adult fiction. She graduated from Harvard University, magna cum laude, with an A.B. in English Literature and Language. She received her J.D. at Yale Law School. Pintip’s novel, Forget Tomorrow, won the RWA RITA® for Best First Book. It is also a finalist for the Grand Prix de l’Imaginaire, the Japanese Sakura Medal, the MASL Truman Award, and the Tome Society It list. In addition, The Darkest Lie was nominated for a Romantic Times Reviewers’ Choice Award. Her books have been translated into four languages, and her other titles include Remember Yesterday, Seize Today, Girl on the Verge, Star-Crossed, and Malice. www.tinyurl.com/y8bhe459
We invited several returning district chairs to discuss their goals and insights as teams kick off a new season of speech and debate.
compiled by Lauren McCoolAMEENA: I wish I had accessed all the leadership resources from the NSDA right away, such as grant opportunities and professional development to share with my district. Luckily, I started using them soon after my first district chair meeting.
MARIEL: Our district is pretty large, with many local opportunities for competition, so it can be hard for newer schools to maneuver everything, and I feel like there’s more I could have done to help make things easier for them. I wish I had worked more with the newer and younger schools in our district.
HOLLY: I wish that I had taken a little more license away from our “tradition.” I felt like I couldn’t move away from the “old” method of doing things. I also wish I had gotten more involved with our district finances. We are still in the process of the 501(c)3—and it’s been four years!
TRAVIS: Asked for more help! I didn’t want to bother people, but sometimes I needed to ask more questions to be more prepared.
PHIL: I just wish someone had told me—or reminded me—that, unfortunately, no matter how hard I try, I cannot possibly make every coach happy. But, I will still happily endeavor to try to do so!
CHRIS: This is a hard question because my first year as district chair was 2020-2021 when we were all online. I feel like we were all in survivor mode. I remember feeling rather lonely at the district meet. It was me and a few of my students wandering around the school. The tab room was in my classroom, and one of the committee members, Jimmy Smith, had come to spend the day with us in person. Everyone else was on the computer screen. It was so different, but I don’t think we could have done anything different. I’m proud of the work we did to keep speech and debate going during that time.
JESSIE: Truth be told, I wish I’d been an NSDA coach for just a few more seasons. Even though I’ve been coaching for much longer, I’ve only been involved in the NSDA world for five years. I don’t regret jumping in and helping to lead, but I am definitely learning alongside my district membership.
AMEENA: I’m really proud of the collegiality among the coaches in our district.
MARIEL: Our coaches are great at keeping our students motivated, especially during the pandemic. Even online, students were still enthusiastic about speech and debate. I’m always so impressed by our students’ drive, commitment, and passion for the activity.
HOLLY: We run large tournaments weekly from November through February, and we work together really well. I am most proud, though, of our commitment to
Ameena Amdahl-Mason
North Oregon District
Mariel Cruz
California Coast District
Holly Custer
Eastern Ohio District
Travis Dahle
Rushmore (SD) District
Phil Helt
Show Me (MO) District
Chris Mosmeyer
Yellow Rose (TX) District
Jessie Sanchez
Virginia District
excellence—we work hard to uphold the Code of Honor and keep each other accountable to the highest levels of ethics and sportsmanship.
TRAVIS: We have schools as small as 250 total kids in their high school that qualify students to Nationals while competing against schools with 2,000 kids. As a district, we don’t have one dominant team with others trying to vie for one or two spots, but we are highly competitive across all events.
PHIL: I think our committee does a great job welcoming coach input and feedback. At the conclusion of every district tournament series, we send out a survey to all coaches. Each year, we have made changes to our operations and schedules, and this has been the direct result of member coach conversation and input. Feedback is a gift, and all coaches should feel welcome to offer their suggestions.
CHRIS: I am most proud of the sense of collegiality that our district has. We do compete against each other intensely, but
District chairs pictured from left to right, top to bottom:we do so with a smile on our faces. There are certainly times when we have disagreements and disappointments, just like any district, but I truly feel that all of us respect and value each other. We want every coach to feel welcome and involved, and we celebrate every victory. We are especially happy when a new school qualifies a student to Nationals for the first time. We cheer for our district at the National Tournament and attend final rounds when we have someone from our district there. We share rides and rooms when we can. Our goal overall is for everyone to feel welcome and for everyone to feel that our district contest has been run fairly.
JESSIE: I wholeheartedly believe we are as inclusive and welcoming as a district can get. We want every speaker, every coach, every team to feel successful. Our tab rooms are open door, and our committee members are kind, supportive, and more helpful than you can imagine.
AMEENA: I’m excited to collaborate with the Portland Urban Debate League (PUDL). I hope to increase their participation in our NSDA national qualifiers by communicating with their executive director, Mal Copeland, and working with them to connect PUDL schools with grant and other opportunities through the NSDA. It also helps that Mal is an NSDA alum, so they know the benefits of being an NSDA member.
MARIEL: We have a large district with a lot of schools— some with a hundred or more students, some with only a handful—but I would like for every school to feel like they can access our district tournaments. My hope is to offer more resources, such as additional coaching, judges, or funding to schools that may find it hard to attend our national qualifiers or other local competitions.
HOLLY: We are focusing on camaraderie, engagement, and incentives this season. We’ve already had one coach gettogether and one student gettogether since the beginning of July. We have another coach gathering scheduled soon, where our conversation will focus on student engagement and focus for this season (e.g., how can we keep our students invested and committed for the whole season).
TRAVIS: I want to try to add a couple of schools, if possible, by reaching out to newer programs as well as helping new coaches be successful.
PHIL: We are working toward creating more resources to share with coaches. This September, coaches across Kansas City (from both the Show Me and the Heart of America Districts) are coming together to host a KC-Area Speech & Debate Workshop. “Seasoned” coaches will lead sessions for both brand new coaches and returning varsity competitors to provide resources and ideas to bring back to their programs. We hope to make this a yearly event.
CHRIS: Being a district chair and teaching a full class load
completely unrelated to speech and debate is challenging. Time to be a district chair is limited. At the same time, I know that I need to communicate better with my district, especially before the district meet. My goal this year is to establish a solid habit of communicating at least weekly with the district as a whole. I also hope to stay more on top of those instant questions and opportunities that come up.
JESSIE: Our main goal is simple: recruit and welcome! If you coach in Virginia, we are waiting for you!
4 Anything else you would like to add?
MARIEL: Being district chair can be stressful at times, but I’ve also found the experience to be extremely rewarding. During the online years of the pandemic, serving the speech and debate community gave me purpose at a time when everything seemed difficult and chaotic. Organizing our district’s online tournaments taught me the importance of community. I always remind myself that caring for the community should always come first, and everything else will fall into place.
HOLLY: I am so thankful for the coaches and teams in Eastern Ohio. We really are like a family, and I am grateful they chose me to lead them. My committee and I work all season to support our district, our coaches, our judges, and our students. We love this activity, and we are grateful for the opportunity to help shape the lives of our students.
CHRIS: I feel that our activity has not fully recovered from the COVID-19 shutdown. In our state, we have seen marked decreases in the number of entries in events like Duo, Prose, Poetry, and other events. We have seen several tournaments canceled in recent years and not restart. We’ve seen some schools stick with online tournaments rather than returning to in-person tournaments. Our tournament calendar today is radically different from what it was five years ago. Some of this decline has been because of coaching changes, and some, I believe, has been due to coaches recognizing that they enjoy having those Saturdays off. I am hoping we can rekindle some of the excitement and fervor that our activity had in past years. I truly believe that speech and debate is a worthwhile high school experience. I want to make sure our students continue to have that opportunity.
JESSIE: I’d like to say thanks to my daughter, Maria Sanchez Tucker. She was one of my first intensely competitive team members, and it was her dream, her research that brought us to qualifiers just a few years ago. If it wasn’t for her desire to compete at Nationals and wear that ribbon, I might never have stepped into this world. She was stripped of that dream due to COVID-19 and had to compete virtually. However, because of her dedication, her little brother and many other Virginia speech and debate kids now see Nationals as an attainable goal. We never know what choices can change lives!
A former competitor turned volunteer coach, Brandon now boasts back-to-back national champions in World Schools Debate.
You currently serve as a volunteer coach for Burbank High School in California. How did you first get involved with coaching?
In 2010, a friend asked if I would consider joining as an assistant coach at North Hollywood High School to
prevent the program from disappearing. Not long after, circumstances eventually led to me becoming the sole coach for the program, and I stayed there for a couple of years until I moved out of state. When I would visit, I would judge for my friends who were still coaching, and occasionally offer an
outside perspective for their students.
When I moved back to California, I ran into the new coach at my alma mater, Burbank High School. He asked me if I would be interested in helping the team as an assistant coach, and I agreed. Once again, not long after, I found myself taking over the program. At first, I volunteered to coach on a short-term basis to prevent the team from falling apart— but the students I worked with made the experience so rewarding that I agreed to stay on and continue to coach as a volunteer indefinitely.
What events did you do in high school? Does your past participation influence your coaching style?
I competed in a variety of events in high school. I think I enjoyed Congressional Debate the most, largely because of its ability to reward different styles of debaters. Even if you debate similar legislation, every round is different. Your challenge is finding a way to stand out in a room of over a dozen other competitors.
Having competitive experience really helps a coach understand the ups and downs that come with speech and debate. Understanding what a student needs from you as a coach, in both good times and bad, is critical to building a strong dynamic with your team.
Moreover, I know how impactful this activity can
be—some of the most meaningful friendships I have had are rooted in this activity, and the skills I learned in it have helped me tremendously in my life and career. I want the students at my alma mater to have the same opportunities I had as a student, and that’s why I give so much of my time and energy to speech and debate.
What do you do as a day job? Do you find any cross-applications to speech and debate?
I work in an operations management role where I oversee a wide range of tasks for a woman and minority owned small business. I do everything from accounting and human resources to reviewing contracts. Managing a team requires strong logistical skills, and my background in these roles has absolutely helped me as a coach.
Moreover, speech and debate gave me the tools to be an advocate, both for myself and for others, and I use those tools every day. I’m so grateful that my time as a speech and debate competitor and coach helped prepare me to be ready to meet those moments and do what we do best—advocate.
Tell us about your team and what makes it unique.
I love my team! They’re such an incredible group of students with different
“A little proactivity goes a long way!”
backgrounds and life experiences who have come to embrace each other as a family. We’re an entirely self-funded team—whatever funds we have are raised through events we organize, donations we’ve asked for, or grant/scholarship opportunities we have sought.
Demographically, our team is fairly diverse with one exception—only about 20% of our team members are male/male-identifying. There are, without a doubt, challenges that female/female-identifying competitors in our activity face that their male/maleidentifying counterparts do not—to say nothing of the challenges faced by nonbinary students. It has been
deeply rewarding to coach a group of young women who are going to change the world, but also very eyeopening about the world that needs changing.
As someone who is neither a staff or faculty member at the school, there are often weird hoops I jump through just to be able manage the team more easily. I took the extra step of going through the same thorough background check and clearance process as faculty, staff, and paid coaches so I could chaperone and transport students to and from tournaments. I don’t have a classroom on campus, so our after-school practices usually rely on being able to get a teacher to agree to let us use
their space. I also maintain frequent communication with school administrators to make both of our jobs easier—a little proactivity goes a long way!
Congratulations on coaching back-to-back champions in World Schools Debate! What advice would you give to other teams about participating in the event?
The first year I coached our district’s team, one of my students, Sungjoo Yoon, worked tirelessly to convince others who had achieved competitive success in other events to switch from their primary event to World Schools Debate at
Nationals—all based on his faith in the team’s ability to do well. We took that same approach this past year, having only one returning student from the 2022 team. I consider myself lucky to have had the opportunity to work with so many students who learned a great deal from their respective coaches—they made my job very easy!
For those taking the time to recruit a hybrid district team, it’s crucial to both be aware of other strong competitors in other events in your district, and to consider the needs of your bench and how those competitors may complement each other. All of your team members should generally mesh
and vibe well together. I will also say that the team succeeded because it had the unwavering support of all our members’ parents.
If you want to find success in this event, learn and understand the things that set it apart from other debate events. It’s not enough to be an excellent case writer, or to be a gifted rhetorician—you have to excel in both, and genuinely engage with your opponents and their arguments instead of trying to evade them.
What general advice would you offer a new coach in this activity?
First, never be afraid to ask for help. Your colleagues are often your strongest allies in learning the ropes as a new speech and debate coach. Even as someone who has been in this activity for over 15 years, I frequently find myself asking for advice and feedback from other coaches.
Second, set reasonable expectations for yourself and your team. Remember that there are many coaches who have decades of experience in this activity who have never coached a state or national champion. Think about the long-term impact of this activity on your students and build your goals around expanding that impact.
Finally, empower your students to serve as leaders on your team. Give
them the tools to be good teachers to your novice competitors, and show them that you value their input in whatever way makes the most sense for your team. My experience has shown me that students are at their best when they feel a sense of ownership and agency over their team, and I’m sure your students will also rise to the occasion if given the chance.
In what ways has the NSDA helped you as a coach?
The NSDA is such an invaluable resource to its members. The Honor Society is a great incentive for my students to continue to compete and grow as speakers. The vast library of free webinars and courses alone have been helpful as I try to continue to grow as a coach.
I would strongly recommend that all coaches watch the free recordings available from the 2021 NSDA National Conference (www.tinyurl.com/yc43ny7n). They are great resources for coaches and tournament
directors who are looking to help make our speech and debate community more accessible, equitable, and inclusive.
My colleagues in this activity are some of the most amazing people I have ever met. California is home to some of the most competitive programs in the country, but it’s also home to an amazing group of coaches who largely collaborate with and support each other to make this activity better. The World Schools Debate coach community is filled with some of the most talented people I’ve ever known, but they are also overwhelmingly kind and willing to share knowledge and resources to help grow the event.
My students make volunteering so much of my time and energy an easy choice. I’d be remiss, of course, if I failed to mention that the only reason I am able to volunteer is because of my incredibly supportive and loving wife. I cannot possibly overstate how lucky I am to have a spouse and partner like her.
It can be very easy to become cynical and disillusioned with the state of our country and world—but I tell people that if they ever want to feel more optimistic about the future, they should judge a speech and debate competition one weekend. I have so much faith in this generation of students and their ability to make things better.
compiled by Vicki Joss, Publications Manager at the NSDAAs a well-established squad with 87 student participants ranging from seventh to twelfth grade, this North Dakota program recently rejoined the NSDA. Having only participated in state competitions the past few decades, they are focusing on becoming competitive at a national level as well. Kelly Timmerman, who coaches Congress and speech events and also serves as an eighth grade English instructor, talks about her journey with the growing team.
At what point did you decide to become a coach?
I accepted a middle school teaching position at St. Mary’s Academy (a feeder school to St. Mary’s Central High School), and was hired by Rhonda Burckhard to be an assistant coach and judge each weekend. After she left her position as head coach, I applied for the position and thankfully got it! I had the privilege of watching Rhonda, affectionately referred to as Mrs. B by the whole team, gracefully coach these kids to reach their full potential in speech. After watching the way she coached, I wanted to help that legacy of seeing the best in each kid carry on with the St. Mary’s team. As many of us speech coaches know, speech is a safe place for students who don’t
necessarily have another place to fit in, and I wanted to continue to provide that safe place for those students.
Tell us a little more about your team.
St. Mary’s Central High School is such a special place to work because most of the students have parents and grandparents who also attended this school, and so the families are very supportive. I am incredibly grateful for their support because I know this isn’t the case for all schools, and I am fortunate to have families who are invested in the success of their children and our team as well. For the last few years, I have had parents reach out to me in August asking what they can do to help months before the season even begins!
Our team mantras, passed onto us from the previous head coaches, are “Win graciously, lose graciously” and “There is no shame in losing to good competition, and no glory in beating poor competition.” My team has embraced these mantras, and we strive for excellence. Every little win is celebrated, even if it’s not acknowledged by a trophy.
How do the students on your team use their speech and debate skills to pursue other passions?
Many of my students on the team are also heavily involved in other fine arts programs in our school and are able to apply their learned performance skills to choir, band, musicals, plays, etc. It’s wonderful to be a part of a school community in which all of the fine arts programs work together to create a supportive environment for students to thrive.
I also have a number of former speech team students who have been emboldened in their self-confidence and are now pursuing careers they would not have dreamed of otherwise. Even with the students I was able to bring with me to the National Tournament this past summer, one is choosing to now pursue a career in education, one has decided to pursue stand-up comedy, and one is hoping to get accepted into the law program at an Ivy League school so he can become a lawyer and stand up for others.
In what ways has the NSDA helped your program?
Rejoining the NSDA has been one of the best decisions I’ve made as a coach. My team and I have learned so much from studiously combing through the NSDA resources. My students who spent hours of time preparing for qualifiers and Nationals became great peer-to-peer coaches for their teammates. It felt as though a light just clicked for them, and they were suddenly able to help themselves and their teammates grow in ways they hadn’t before.
The NSDA also provided a plethora of of funding opportunities for my team.
We are a non-profit school, and the budget doesn’t have wiggle room. When I decided to rejoin the NSDA, I took a leap of faith that the funding to make it to qualifiers and Nationals would work itself out. I am grateful for the financial assistance opportunities that the NSDA offers because without those opportunities, this is not something that my team could have done.
I am so fortunate to have a strong support system in our North Dakota speech community, so I could name quite a few people who have been mentors to me throughout the past few years of coaching. Abby Ingstad, Nathan Amberg, Rhonda Burckhard, Loren Nieuwsma, Annette Bender, and Sue Anderson have been such big supporters in my journey to becoming a coach. I could provide an exhaustive list of all they’ve done to help and mentor me as a coach, but that would get
w
quite lengthy. Overall, they each have contributed to me learning how to effectively coach a big team, graciously accept the ups and downs of each speech season, ask for help, and see the best in each of my kids. One of the repeated conversations I’ve had with these mentors is how hard coaching can be, but how rewarding it is to see our kids grow in their speech abilities and grow as people. The resounding reminder they give me is that we do this for the kids.
What is something awesome, surprising, and/or challenging about coaching your team?
The most challenging part is balancing the workload of coaching and still being a good and effective teacher in my classroom. It is a never-ending battle between the two (for which I have yet to find the magic solution), but I hope as I gain more experience each year, finding a balance will become easier.
I have been pleasantly surprised by how quickly my older students lean into being
Mathew Foolish Bear and J. Scott Wunn holding Mathew’s tribal flag for the Mandan-Hidatsa-Arikara Nation. Coach Kelly Timmerman, Mathew Foolish Bear, and Gertrude Moran at Mathew’s pow wow special that honored him for his accomplishments in speech and Congress.I love that in the midst of being a part of a truly massive team, my older students take it upon themselves to make sure their young teammates don’t feel left out.”
— Coach Kelly Timmerman
mentors for the middle school students on the team—or as they affectionately refer to them, “the littles.” I love that in the midst of being a part of a truly massive team, my older students take it upon themselves to make sure their young teammates don’t feel left out. They started a tradition my first year as head coach of going out to dinner as a team when we return to Bismarck, and while I’m certain the local eateries aren’t necessarily pleased at the prospect of having 40+ teenagers descend on their establishment, I love that my students want to spend even more time with each other after already having spent the whole day together.
One of the most amazing parts of coaching is seeing my students come out of their shells. I often reflect on how Mathew Foolish Bear, currently a rising senior, barely spoke above an audible whisper when he was in sixth grade. Now, he has placed first at the state championship tournament in Informative Speaking and competed at the National Tournament two months later. My heart truly bursts with joy whenever I think of how much he has grown as a person in the last six years. He isn’t afraid to speak up and stand up for what he believes in, and I am so happy he has found his voice and uses it for good.
St. Mary’s Central High School students speak about their experiences at Nationals and offer their tips for other competitors.
Sam Huntington (Humorous Interpretation) Nationals was a bundle of stress and fun, but it really helped me to better appreciate our home tournaments. The community as a whole is very welcoming, and it was so easy to meet new people and strike up a conversation.”
TIP | “Enjoy your local, state tournaments. I recommend that you use any tournament or round you attend as an opportunity to meet new people and get to know your opponents in your event.”
It was an amazing experience to be a part of Nationals this summer. To be a contestant was an honor and a privilege. My speech covered the topic of the Federal Indian Boarding School Era and its ramifications on indigenous people, which is too often a part of the United States history that is forgotten and swept under the rug. I had the opportunity to compete against the best speakers in the country, and I learned about new topics and events that were presented in an insightful and thoughtprovoking manner.”
TIP | “Finding your niche and personalizing everything you do in speech and debate makes the rounds more eventful, eyeopening, and engaging for yourself, your audience, and your competitors. Being your true and authentic self enriches all of us in the speech and debate community.”
How did you first get “hooked” in the activity in seventh grade? What events have you participated in over the years?
I used to do ballet, and I loved the adrenaline rush of performing on stage. My school had a really robust middle school team, and I loved doing current event presentations and other public speaking activities throughout elementary school. My mom told me to try it out, and I did!
all over again. I think that’s why I liked Congress, too— you can prepare as much as you want, but you’re never fully ready for what the chamber, the question, or the prompt might throw at you.
What skills have you gained from participation in speech and debate?
The list is endless— this activity brought me a whole new level of self-confidence, an increased appreciation and understanding of how the world works, and a lessthan-healthy ability to write essays the night before they’re due.
In 2018, you were named the NSDA middle school champion in both Extemp and Impromptu, winning Extemp again in 2019. What drew you to limited preparation events in particular?
It wasn’t by choice. I actually started out in Congress (which I competed in my whole career as well), but my middle school coach told me I had to try Extemp. There may or may not have been tears involved. I gave it a shot, and fell in love with the adrenaline rush
How has serving as a junior faculty member at a summer institute helped shape your understanding of the activity?
Working at the Institute for Speech and Debate (ISD) was an incredible experience. I thought that after six years of doing Extemp, I had gotten a pretty complete understanding of the event—not so. Coaching opened up a whole new world of appreciation for the activity. My favorite part by far was watching the students learn so much over the course of a week or two, and knowing I got to be a part of that process.
“Thank you for an amazing six years.”
Having earned multiple national titles throughout her NSDA career, McKinley shares the adrenaline rush of competition—and the joys of giving back.McKinley was named the national champion in International Extemporaneous Speaking in 2022 and 2023.
How have you used your speech and debate skills to pursue other passions?
Kidz 4 Causes is a registered 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization, dedicated to empowering students to facilitate global change. In high school, I was the president and executive director of the organization, which boasts members from around the world. As president, I managed a team of a dozen fellow board members and a 50-person volunteer base, orchestrating fundraisers, outreach, and rallying community support with the tools I got from speech and debate. Most recently, the organization
has dedicated its efforts to fundraising for the TGen Center for Rare Childhood Disorders. So far, we’ve raised over $150,000 for rare disease research.
You were also the director of the Extemper’s Bible in 2022. Could you share a little more about your former role in that organization?
As director of the Extemper’s Bible, I led a team of 20 speech and debate competitors from around the world in publishing free instructional resources to democratize speech and debate—an activity that sometimes leaves competitors whose
teams cannot afford coaches or other resources at a disadvantage. Our website, extempers.org, has garnered 100,000+ hits, and our monthly podcast reaches 1,000+ listeners. Speech and debate as a community has given me so much, and through my work with the Extemper’s Bible, I’ve been honored to give back.
activity. C. Ryan Joyce, Chris Jordan, Erin Guiney, Nick Klemp, Brittany Stanchik, Rhonda Smith, and so many more people were all integral parts in helping me grow as a competitor and a person.
You plan to attend Harvard in the fall, studying government. Will you continue with speech and debate, either as a competitor or coach?
This year, you were named the back-to-back national champion in International Extemp. What did it mean for you to compete your senior year in your home state?
It was really special. Because the NSDA releases Nationals locations years in advance, I’ve known since the beginning of my career that my last tournament would be at home. It was an amazing way to say goodbye to the activity.
Do you have any speech and debate mentors?
I’ve been really fortunate to work with some brilliant people in this
Extemp helped me find a passion for international relations, so I’m really excited to spend the next four nerding out about that. And I do plan to coach Extemp!
Given this platform, is there a change to any aspect of speech and debate for which you would advocate?
Cross-examination after every Extemp speech in every round at every tournament—please!
It’s kind of silly for our event to be so different in some rounds at some tournaments. Crossex makes speeches, argumentation, and preparation better, so there’s no reason to make it so exclusive.
compiled by Vicki Joss, Publications Manager at the NSDAThis community and activity changed my life, taught me so much, and introduced me to my best friends. I’m so grateful to have been a part of it.”
— McKin ley Paltzik (’23), Phoenix Country Day School, Arizona
Two years ago, Kubra escaped to the United States after the Taliban invaded Afghanistan. Since then, she has used her voice to tell her story and lift up the voices of others.
as told to Lauren BeesleyAs a senior at Shrewsbury High School in Massachusetts, Kubra discussed her experiences in a Taliban-governed Afghanistan, placing fourth at the 2023 National Catholic Forensic League competition with her Original Oratory speech titled, “Is it a crime to study?” Now, she’s been accepted to the Princeton Summer Journalism Program out of 40 students nationwide. She is a shining example of using your voice to effect important change, one word at a time. Today, Kubra tells us her story and how she uses speech and debate to deliver her message.
How did you come to the United States, and what drove you to speech and debate?
On August 15, 2021, the Taliban took over Afghanistan, and they banned girls from attending school or university. I moved to the United States because it was the only way I could continue my education and continue my dreams.
After that, I joined speech and debate because it was a way I could speak up for women’s rights, for rights of other people, for people who cannot raise their voice.
The topic for your speech last year was, “Is it a crime to study?” Why is that topic important to you?
When the Taliban exploded our school, we didn’t have basic things like books. They banned girls from attending school. Women [could] not go outside without a male chaperone.
But it’s not a crime. It’s our basic right, our human right. We have to go to school— we need to.
My hope is to raise my voice and do just a little bit. Maybe I can’t do very big things, [but] if people know about these issues, if I can write [an] essay and have other people join me, maybe we can change something together. I cannot do it alone, so if my team supports me, if my audience supports me, of course we can change something.
What specifically drew you to Original Oratory?
I like OO because it’s not a [made-up] story, it’s true—about your life, other people’s lives, or about facts that happened.
Outside of speech and debate, what hobbies or interests do you have?
I love reading, writing, or spending time with my family—talking to them and playing games.
Kubra has a compelling story. She is a remarkable young woman. Working with her, especially the day before NCFL competition began, were moments that truly reminded her coaches of the reason we’re involved in the activity.”
— Marc Rischitelli, Coach, Shrewsbury High School, MassachusettsIn Afghanistan, our school was 20 minutes away on foot. We didn’t have buses, so we had to walk. Our classes were under a tent. We did not have chairs, a water fountain, a cafeteria, or even bathrooms. We did not have books or papers. We had a little blackboard where we could solve only one math question.
Yes, I went to school for five years like that. I was 10 years old when we moved to the city of Kabul, the capital of Afghanistan. In the city, we had more opportunities, but there was no security. We weren’t safe in the classrooms, because as young girls trying to get an education, we were a target for the Taliban. They viewed our yearning for knowledge as a threat to their ideology.
According to Human Rights Watch, there were more than 200 attacks on Afghan students, teachers, schools, and universities between 2018 and mid-2021. The attacks included air strikes and use of homemade explosive devices. Over 600 educators and students were reportedly injured or killed in these attacks, and more than 70 schools were reportedly damaged...
I know this firsthand, because it happened to me... I was in class, like every day... [Then], heartbreaking sounds rang out in our classroom, and the windows of my classroom broke. I was shocked and scared. I lost three of my best friends. I pretended to be strong, as if I wasn’t scared, because it wasn’t the first time I had faced such a terrible situation. I went to bring water for my classmates. They just cried, and some of them were fainting...
When my friend called her mom, I remembered that I should call my mother... After one-anda-half hours, I called her. She thought that I was killed in the explosion. She cried and cried. She [had] told my brother to go to the hospital to see which hospital my body is in... When I called and spoke with her, she said, “Are you sure you are Kubra?’’ After maybe two or three hours, I saw my mom. She hugged me tightly and kissed me. She said thank God that I am alive... This speech might be different from what you normally hear... That’s because this is MY story. I am the source. This is about my education and how it got me here today. This is about how I arrived in the U.S. on August 25, 2021, and started learning English, because until then, I spoke only Dari. My solution was to come here and tell my story of women and education to you so I could use my voice to raise awareness of the privileges that people have in the U.S. and the differences that girls and women face in other countries.
Now you can be part of the solution, too, to talk to your friends, your co-workers, your family, and tell them about this issue. Tell them about my story. We can write articles, talk about this issue in our social networks, and speak openly about this injustice. As Audre Lorde said, “I am not free while any woman is unfree, even when her shackles are very different from my own.”
An excerpt from Kubra’s Original Oratory speech that shares more of her story and advocates for change.
What have you gained through doing speech and debate?
Experience, and friends. That’s really important to me, especially when I want to improve my English. I need more practice. I didn’t know anyone at the school, so it was really good that I made friends, and now they are my best friends.
What advice would you give students who come from a different country or who don’t have English as a first language who want to get into speech and debate?
My advice is never give up, never [be] afraid to speak English when you don’t know, like me. I cannot speak very fluently, [but] I still joined speech and debate. Even [if] you don’t know anything, ask people, or if you don’t know something, learn something new. Just try everything. Never [be] scared.
When I was in seventh grade, my mother had to sign a schedule request form for me to take an elective art class. Her signature was conditional—she wanted me to take a speech class to gain some confidence. So I took a speech class and then went to my first tournament a few months later, winning a second place ribbon in Impromptu Speaking.
A few years later, during my first year of college, I contacted my ninth grade speech and debate teacher about getting together for dinner. She was the one who had me competing in Policy Debate, Extemp, and
Oratory, but added Poetry and Dramatic Interp to my skill set. She was only my teacher for one year, but was someone I greatly respected. I was unsure of what I wanted to do in life, and so I sought her input. We caught up for a bit, then when I asked her what she thought about my future, she sat up straight and said with the strongest conviction, “Why, Cindi, you are supposed to be a teacher.”
I could never have anticipated that decades later, my personal and professional life would still be so intertwined with the world of speech and debate. Even after all this time, speech and
debate continues to provide me with opportunities beyond measure.
Sadly, far too many of my colleagues have left the field for a host of reasons; we have not only lost significant talent and leadership, we have lost entire programs and institutional knowledge. Students hungry for speech and debate education are left wanting for sound coaching and adult guidance.
How do we stay involved in the activity without losing ourselves?
For me, the key has been to step back, reinvent myself, and plunge right back in.
After five years of debating in junior high and high school, I moved into judging, choosing to not pursue debate in college. Then, through a fluke first teaching assignment, I ended up teaching debate as an elective before creating an elementary and then a middle school team. Invigorated by that experience, I followed up with high school students and a role in leadership at the state level. I thought I had done it all.
Step back.
I moved, started coaching high school again at the most competitive level possible, and hosted our state tournament before becoming president of the state association.
Step back.
I began raising my first son, moved, ramped up coaching again, hosted another state tournament, then my first Nationals.
Step back.
I started professional development and curriculum writing.
Step back.
A student asked about cross-ex questions and sucked me back in as a tutor. When my oldest was a senior and my youngest in first grade, I moved into an assistant coach role at their school. Then I started a club for little ones so that my own little boy could experience the activity.
I hosted Nationals again. Step back.
Then two more Nationals. Step back.
What
Go all in, step back, regroup, approach from a different angle, regroup and try something else, plunge back in.
The ages, grade levels, demographics, locales, positions, and compensation all kept changing—but what
was the same every single time was the belief that this activity is so transformative that I felt compelled to make it possible for every student to participate and for every teacher to feel competent to teach critical and portable skills.
That’s been the key to my own recharging. Perhaps it will work for you:
• If you are tired of older students, try working with younger ones. I started debate club for third and fourth graders and have taught summer camps for K-2 grades using children’s stories to develop oral communication and debate skills.
• Bored with the classroom? Try tutoring international students or working with some of the many students who don’t have school programs or coaches but would benefit from the activity.
• If you want to work with underserved students, reach out to your local UDL (urban debate league). They need support in every area!
• If you have honed your skills and need a challenge, volunteer for a leadership position with your local NSDA district or state organization.
• If you love the curriculum piece, explore writing lessons for one of the myriad organizations that exist or publishing your work independently.
• If you like event planning, look into hosting a local, state, or even national event. If staying remote is more appealing, we know now that online options continue to be popular.
• Too comfortable with debate? Try individual events. Tired of coaching Interp? Try a debate format.
• Tired of predictable debate arguments and spending the year on one
topic? Try World Schools Debate.
• Need to be on the other side for a while? Go watch your child compete in college and volunteer to judge rounds at the college level in between picking up meals for the big kids.
All of these options are incredibly fresh in my mind right now because I’ve recently completed a “bookend” event in my life’s journey.
In the summer of 2013, my family traveled to Europe to see what this thing called “World Schools Debate” was all about. I remember being so confused about impromptu motions/prep!
(opposite, top) Cindi with her first sweepstakes trophy as a middle school coach—”I thought I had peaked.” • (middle) The NSDA inducted Cindi into the Hall of Fame in 2012. • (bottom) One of Cindi’s favorite high school teams snaps a “candid” for the school newspaper.That experience began a decade of creating and leading the USA Debate program, one of the most professionally fulfilling parts of my career. As I told the new team members every year, it doesn’t get better than doing what you love for your country!
From the very beginning, I knew I wanted to establish more than a championshiplevel team; I wanted to create a debate family. With more than 90 alumni members, we have watched each new generation of team members be adopted into the fold of “family.”
Starting a program from scratch meant coming up with everything from a logo to the best swag, to creating team policies, to how to conduct weekly practice sessions
across four time zones, to figuring out how to book international flights with over a dozen connections for any one event—all part of the roller coaster that has been USA Debate.
In the beginning, we were teaching kids the format before we could ever begin coaching them. Over time, as the format grew in the U.S., we started with students who knew what they were doing. That meant our coaching could be focused far earlier in the year. We also brought the format to our home state of Texas.
This year’s USA team was the first to have a full year of “live” experiences after the pandemic; they also had the talent, work ethic, character, leadership, a sense of team... they had it all!
After starting the year in Dallas, we went to Mexico City where we met with our good friends from Mexico and Canada for a training event. We later traveled to Singapore for more training and enjoyed a series of domestic and online events throughout the year.
After selecting the team in late March, a group of dedicated individuals prepped for the final push to the WSDC. Advancing through the tournament only to meet our good friends from Canada on the other side in finals was quite special—creating the first-ever North American final.
Aaron and I had planned some time ago to make this our final year of leading the USA Debate team. Ten years is a long time, and both coaching and managing the team made for intense demands on an ongoing basis. Professionally, it was also time for my work leading the Dallas Urban Debate Alliance as the Executive Director to take priority.
So, here we were, 10 years in, prepared to take a step to the side, with the best team the United States has had in our tenure...
AND THEY DID IT! The USA Debate team won the World Championships! There could NOT have been a more perfect end to this chapter of my journey.
Step back.
A few years ago, I tracked down that ninth grade teacher; she was long retired and living in Arkansas. I called her, and when I said my name, she knew immediately who I was. I updated her on my life and reminded her of that dinner. I could tell she was crying. She said she knew that I was destined for great things and that she was very proud of me. Her belief in me has driven me forward all these years. Ms. Velda Holmes has since passed away, but I am so thankful I made that last call to let her know what she meant to me and what she gave me through this activity.
Speech and debate gives all of us the opportunity to make a transformative difference in other people. We provide the training for students to use their voices to tell their stories and to change lives. There is something for everyone within speech and debate—the universe of this activity is vast, and there is still territory to be explored.
I hope that you will be encouraged to stay involved and reinvent yourself when it’s time, because just when you think you’ve done it all, you can still find something new and exciting and meaningful to do.
Reinvent. Dive back in.
North American debate coaches from the U.S., Canada, and Mexico spending time together in Mexico City during a World Schools training event.
STUDENTS WITH MEANINGFUL DEBATES THROUGH BIG QUESTIONS!
Big Questions is a debate format designed to open students’ minds and encourage them to engage in life discussion that may not align with their previously held beliefs. Whether or not students change their opinion, the rich experience of this debate event will advance their knowledge, comfort, and interest in learning more about the subject matter based on the intersection of science and philosophy.
Students greatly improved in their debate skills as the Big Questions tournament progressed. The students really had fun with it and got into the debate. It was nice for me as their teacher and coach to see improvement in their skills.
GET STARTED AT:
f Big Questions
Final Rounds
Archive
f Big Questions Judge Training
f BIG QUESTIONS
LESSON PLAN –Constructing an Argument
f BIG QUESTIONS
LESSON PLAN –Refuting an Argument
speechanddebate.org/big-questions
is designed to highlight individuals whose everyday actions embody the NSDA’s core value of equity and help make speech and debate a more inclusive activity. Through their actions, attitudes, and leadership, these individuals offer acts of kindness and gentle reminders that the speech and debate community is a kind and caring environment. All of the individuals highlighted in this piece were nominated by their students, teammates, and coaches for being shining examples of everyday equity and inclusive acts that make speech and debate great. (Editor’s note: Some nominations have been edited for space/clarity.) Join us in celebrating these faces in the crowd! — compiled by Dr. Paul Porter and Jessica Kincannon
Middle College High School, California
Nominated by Paola Sanchez
Ashley has advocated for Latinos through her speech performances and always puts her best foot forward to ensure a more diverse and equitable community. She has created several programs to bring awareness to the struggles Latinos unfortunately face, and she works hard to make sure that all voices are heard. Ashley has been a strong leader in the speech and debate community and works tirelessly to make sure everyone is respected and included.
Our Lady of the Elms High School, Ohio
Nominated by Danielle Stanley
I am so glad I met Hayden. She is always so supportive to everyone no matter their sexuality, gender, or race. Sometimes at tournaments, she makes bracelets and gives out cookies for everyone to feel involved, no matter their differences. She always shows her leadership by influencing others to be kind.
San Angelo Central High School, Texas
Nominated by Auburn Jameson
Every day at lunch, Mr. Evers’ classroom serves as a safe space to eat and learn. He is constantly inviting new kids to join speech and is always eager to tell them all about it and let them know they have a home here, even if he just met them. Our speech team is the size it is because of him and his willingness to include everyone. Nobody on our team feels like a favorite. No one feels disliked. He makes us all feel equal.
American Heritage SchoolsPalm Beach Campus, Florida
Nominated by Rachel Wallack
Mya is a magnet for good vibes. She exudes empathy daily in conversations with her teammates, and when on travel tournaments, she provides the high morale we all need. Mya leads daily by sharing critical feedback with kindness, but never shying away from the complexities of the societal problems we face, like issues of housing justice, on which she created a POI program. It is a pleasure to coach Mya because she is honest, hard working, and dedicated to equity.
Dr. Paul Porter is the Director of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion at the NSDA. Jessican Kincannon serves as a Content Specialist at the NSDA.
JACLYN HARIRI
Santa Ana Unified School District, California
Nominated by Ashley Andrade
At our school district, Mrs. Hariri makes speech and debate a truly caring and giving environment. She’s constantly listening to the students in the program and puts them first above all. Although she cannot relate to all of the experiences students have gone through, she is always willing to listen and is open to new learning experiences. Mrs. Hariri is always looking out for the students in the program while promoting growth and change.
TASHA JONES
Corpus Christi Independent School District, Texas
Nominated by Ariana Esquivel
Mrs. Jones was the first coach who made me feel safe in my own skin and allowed me to grow in finding my voice to be able to use it for good. She truly is an embodiment to what speech and debate is supposed to be about. She made sure each one of her students was comfortable in their own skin and comfortable using their voice for the issues we felt needed to be brought up in conversation.
Do you know someone who should be featured?
FILL OUT A NOMINATION FORM TODAY!
www.speechanddebate.org/ faces-in-the-crowd
The NSDA staff congratulates our Executive Director, J. Scott Wunn, on 20 years leading the organization this September!
Scott’s tenure has been full of change, but he is a constant source of support and inspiration to us.
Thank you, Scott!
In 2023, the NSDA introduced the Activating Equity Award to honor the work of groups or collectives of individuals who, over the past year or years, have dedicated themselves to the enhancement of the culture of equity in middle and high school speech and debate activities. This year’s recipient received a monetary award of $5,000 to help them further their work in pursuing equity in speech and debate and were publicly recognized at this year’s Diamond Assembly during the National Tournament. The NSDA is proud to highlight this
www.practice-space.org
This year’s winner is a woman of color-led nonprofit rooted in the Iron Triangle of Richmond, California. Through camps, school-based programs, private lessons, partner workshops, online and in-person offerings, this organization helps youth and adults in the Bay Area inspire positive change, address social anxieties, and feel connected to others. They provide a fun and safe place to be creative, express voices, and listen to stories. According to their nominator, their students develop confidence and identities as public speakers, learners, facilitators of voice, and leaders.
year’s winner, The Practice Space, as well as the finalists and semifinalists who have turned their conviction into action and strive to ensure fairness and justice in the context of speech and debate, both in round and beyond. — compiled by Dr. Paul Porter
Since 2017, the organization has promoted the idea that people should develop their own free, original voices. As one of the founders, AnnMarie Baines, explains, “We are called ‘The Practice Space’ because we need kind, welcoming, fun places to practice without judgment, even if we haven’t been on a speech and debate team. We like to say we do serious work with whimsy and fun, providing a gateway to leadership and liberation.” — Nominated by Joel Jacobs | Learn more about AnnMarie’s journey on page 44.
www.brooklyndebateleague.org
I founded the Brooklyn Debate League in 2017 to offer speech and debate to students in Brooklyn who didn’t have teams at their schools. Last year, we became legally incorporated as a 501(c)(3) and piloted a program wherein we started teams at several NYC public schools where we highly subsidized the cost. None of those schools had active teams last year, and we brought in a staff member to run practices, take kids to tournaments, and train faculty members how to judge and coach. We plan to introduce a new pilot to offer an eight-week introductory survey course at two additional public high schools.
Dr. Paul Porter is the Director of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion at the NSDA.In addition to our school-based support, we have tried to fight the inequity gap on three other fronts: tournaments, camps, and coaching. We offer two free tournaments a month where we cover judges. We offered a free twoweek camp for the last two years for 100+ kids. We offer free online weekly coaching. The schools we work with serve families from low-income communities, so we don’t force parents to contribute anything towards transportation, hotels, registration, judge stipends, meals, professional attire, or tech. — Nominated by KM DiColandrea
The Greenhouse Communication Initiative, Inc.
www.gci-stl.org/greenhouse-forensics
The Greenhouse Communication Initiative, Inc., began in 2005 as the Greenhouse Poetry, Inc., in Bowling Green, Kentucky. From 2005 to 2013, we offered weekly workshops for day and after-school programs focused on performance poetry and comprehensive forensics (speech and debate). Our organization sponsored numerous touring artists, organized a local youth poetry slam league, and sponsored and managed a youth and adult performance poetry team in Bowling Green, Kentucky, and Indianapolis, Indiana.
Our literary services extended to juvenile detention centers at the Warren Regional Juvenile Detention Center. We partnered with local youth programs, the Bowling Green Housing Authority, Western Kentucky University’s Women’s Studies Department, the University of Indianapolis, and Indianapolis Public Schools for summer, spring, and after-school programming. We also partnered with local businesses, universities and colleges, the state of Kentucky, and our local Chamber of Commerce on various events, programs, and projects for students and the community. The GCI officially relocated to St. Louis in 2015. Since then, we have provided camp and afterschool programming and services for Illinois College, St. Louis City & County Juvenile Detention Centers, Wiley College, Webster University, Sigel Elementary School, Columbia Elementary School, Confluence Prep Academies, Collegiate School of Medicine and Biosciences, and the St. Louis LINKS Superheroes Summer Camp. — Nominated by Stacy
BernaughBeyond Resolved is an international student-led organization dedicated to breaking down barriers to entry into debate, especially Public Forum debate, for marginalized people. Operating continuously since June 2018, Beyond Resolved has provided judge training materials focused on anti-bias and inclusivity, offered formal clothing to students facing economic hardships, and much more. — Nominated by Thadeus Smith
Five years ago, we created an initiative dubbed ‘Empower Communities With Us.’ This effort has born several farreaching programs, including a formal codification of a Harassment and Discrimination Policy, a Code of Honor, implicit bias language on all ballots at our state tournament, and the Dues Waiver Program that covers 100% of the CHSSA membership fee for programs that face economic marginalization. — Nominated by Angelique Ronald
The Center for Democracy in Deaf America co-organizes with Gallaudet University the annual Youth Debate Bowl—a unique debate competition open to all deaf and hard-ofhearing students currently attending middle school or high school. This year, over 25 middle and high school students from around five deaf schools and programs in the country participated in the Youth Debate Bowl. — Nominated by Brendan Stern
The genesis of the Debate Group stemmed from the unwavering commitment of two former Centennial High School (TX) students to fostering equal opportunity for students, especially for debate programs like theirs that historically struggled with financial obstacles. Since the Debate Group’s inception, our program has expanded to an international domain and now consists of 46 competitively ranked mentors. — Nominated by Parth Wokhlu
Equality in Forensics started as an informal community of debaters who supported each other by organizing practice rounds, free educational resources, free labs, and lectures, hosting free online tournaments, and creating an inclusive space for debaters to learn from each other. Our biggest tournament, the 2022 Season Championship, offered Congress, Extemp, LD, and PF. We hosted a total of 70 competitors and 35 judges at no cost. — Nominated by Nicholas
OstheimerThe GFCA provides a safe space for students regardless of race, economic status, or gender. Under the auspices of the GFCA, they began the Georgia Novice Packet to offer all novice students access to quality research. The Novice Packet was especially important in Georgia, where many students are of color, impoverished, and/or in rural communities. For years, the Georgia Novice Packet was used by other states because it allowed coaches to teach debate skills to students with varying resources.
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Nominated by Pamela ChildressFounded by three men of color, IPDA HS Circuit aims to support high school debate using the style of IPDA for competitors across the state of Arkansas and the nation. The group hosts one large tournament and supports hosting schools throughout the year, providing judging support and structure that elevates diversity, equity, and inclusion. — Nominated by Joel Brown
The mission of the Minnesota Urban Debate League is to empower students through competitive academic debate to become engaged learners, critical thinkers, and active global citizens who are effective advocates for themselves and their communities. The MNUDL now includes one of the nation’s largest middle school debate teams, the Spanish Debate League, the nation’s first East African Debate program, Financial Literacy Leadership Debates, and MDAW Summer Speech & Debate Camp.
— Nominated by Cort Sylvester
In 2018, The Richmond Forum launched the Richmond Forum Speech & Debate Initiative by awarding grants to Chesterfield County Public Schools and Richmond Public Schools to help elevate existing high school speech and debate teams and start new ones. We have provided resources through coaches’ training, heavily recruited and trained volunteer judges, and partnered with Virginia State University to host the 2023 National HBCU Speech and Debate Championship. — Nominated by Lucretia Anderson
We were founded in March 2020 to help younger students overcome their fear of public speaking and become confident leaders and changemakers in their communities. Entirely student-run, our free, accessible tutoring and competition resources are meant to promote equity in speech and debate; we’ve managed to impact over 4000+ students online. — Nominated by Melvin Joseph
LEARN MORE ! Visit our website for nomination details, or register for our Activating Equity Award Townhall on November 8, 2023, at 6:00 p.m. CT.
www.speechanddebate.org/activating-equity-award
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Congratulations to the following schools that were granted charter chapter status in 2022-2023!
Becoming a charter chapter is the highest honor for high schools in the NSDA. A chapter is automatically chartered if, after at least one year at member status, it has earned at least 50 degrees within a three-year period. Small schools with a grade 9-12 enrollment of fewer than 500 students must earn at least 25 degrees within a three-year period. For more details, visit www.speechanddebate.org/school-recognition. Schools are listed in alphabetical order by state/country.
If you believe your school earned charter status in 2022-2023, but you are not on this list, please email info@speechanddebate.org so we can recognize your school in an upcoming issue of Rostrum.
I decided to include the NSDA in my estate plans because speech and debate is an activity that teaches everything from argumentation and speaking skills to humility and gracefully losing. This activity made me a different and better person, and I want to make sure that students well into the future are afforded the opportunities I was.”
Aarzu Maknojia NSDA ALUMThe National Speech & Debate Association is grateful to acknowledge the following 1925 Society members for pledging a generous planned gift contribution.
Byron Arthur
Phyllis Flory Barton
Jane Boyd
James Copeland
Don and Ann Crabtree
Rob Dekoven
Dr. Mike Edmonds
A. C. Eley
Vickie and Joe Fellers
Bill and Charlotte Hicks
David and Judy Huston
Jennifer Jerome
Harold Keller
Kandi King
Cherian and Betsy Koshy
Dr. Tommie Lindsey, Jr.
Aarzu Maknojia
Pam and Ray McComas
H. B. Mitchell
Lanny and B. J. Naegelin
Albert Odom, Jr.
J. W. Patterson
Capt. Joseph L. and Jan Pizzo
David Price
Dr. Polly and Bruce Reikowski
Donus and Lovila Roberts
James Rye, III
Steve and Anna Schappaugh
David Seikel
Michael Shapiro
Sandra Silvers
Richard Sodikow
William Woods Tate, Jr.
Scott and Chan Waldrop
Nicole and Darrel Wanzer-Serrano
Cheryl Watkins
J. Scott and Megan Wunn
Joe and Pam Wycoff
David and Tatiana Yastremski
Leaving your legacy with the NSDA can be done in three easy steps:
1. Add a simple paragraph to your will stating the NSDA as a beneficiary. You can revise your gift at any time.
2. Notify Nicole Wanzer-Serrano that the NSDA has been added to your will. nicole@speechanddebate.org
3. Celebrate knowing that you will impact future generations by joining The 1925 Society!
Contact Nicole for more information: nicole@speechanddebate.org
Congratulations to the following students who earned Speaking and Service Awards in 2022-2023! This award annually recognizes member students who go above and beyond in their service to their teams, schools, and communities. Students receive this award when they earn 200 service points in a given year, the maximum number possible in a school year in our Honor Society. Visit www.speechanddebate.org/student-recognition to learn more.
Samyukta Vimalraj Bentonville High School AR
Daniel Taft Conway High School AR
Tatum Mikles Episcopal Collegiate School AR
William Mitchell Har-Ber High School AR
Ella Tompkins Har-Ber High School AR
Kaneeka Chakraborty Little Rock Central High School AR
Alexis Li Hamilton High School AZ
Arnav Nigam Hamilton High School AZ
Leela Raj-Sankar Hamilton High School AZ
Victoria Bui Alhambra High School CA
Alton Zhang Alhambra High School CA
Akilan Dorairaj Bellarmine College Prep CA
Rohan Lingam Bellarmine College Prep CA
Jeffrey Mu Bellarmine College Prep CA
Rohit Vakkalagadda Bellarmine College Prep CA
Thomas Vosganian Bellarmine College Prep CA
Tatiana Eden Ochoa Cajon High School CA
Jorge Ramos Cajon High School CA
Jorge Zepeda Cajon High School CA
Melinda “Michi” Synn Canyon Crest Academy CA
Elizabeth Vassantachart Cleveland High School CA
Roma Kapoor Fairmont Preparatory Academy CA
Ellie Sohn Flintridge Preparatory School CA
Maira Jaswal Folsom High School CA
Shreeya Dayitha Ram Folsom High School CA
Audrey Bae Fullerton Union High School CA
Phi Chanda Irvington High School CA
Kamakshi Gupta Irvington High School CA
Aimee Ge Los Altos High School CA
Kanishk Kondaka Los Altos High School CA
Caleb Lin Los Altos High School CA
Ethan Park Los Altos High School CA
Weixin Sun Los Altos High School CA
Aryeh Ohriner Los Gatos High School CA
Elizabeth Vuong Mark Keppel High School CA
Jenna Ersheid Mountain View High School CA
Shane Masterson Palisades Charter High School CA
Christopher Choi Palo Alto Senior High School CA
Zisen (Samantha) Fan Palo Alto Senior High School CA
Christie Hong Palo Alto Senior High School CA
Julian Hong Palo Alto Senior High School CA
Holden Lee Palo Alto Senior High School CA
Wendy Li Palo Alto Senior High School CA
Gavin Lin Palo Alto Senior High School CA
Marcus Ling Palo Alto Senior High School CA
Jonathan Liu Palo Alto Senior High School CA
Bethany Liu Palo Alto Senior High School CA
Mihir Menon Palo Alto Senior High School CA
Keerath Pujji Palo Alto Senior High School CA
Kishor Rajmohan Palo Alto Senior High School CA
Samarth Sethi Palo Alto Senior High School CA
Sarina Shah Palo Alto Senior High School CA
Joseph Sun Palo Alto Senior High School CA
Kelly Tanaka Palo Alto Senior High School CA
William Tu Palo Alto Senior High School CA
Jia He Xia Palo Alto Senior High School CA
Adeleine Choi Parks Junior High CA
Sophia Tian Prospect High School CA
Pasha Raoufi Redlands High School CA
Grace Wang Valley Christian High School CA
Janelle-Marie Batiste Westlake High School CA
Timothy Ha Westlake High School CA
James Miller Westlake High School CA
Sophie Chia Westridge School CA
Grace Wieland Westridge School CA
Eileen Eun BC Academy Canada
Meredith Gao BC Academy Canada
Sophie Kim BC Academy Canada
Collin Corkill Cherry Creek High School CO
Matthew Abrams George Washington High School CO
Halle Guber George Washington High School CO
Sarita Patel George Washington High School CO
Ashok Vasan George Washington High School CO
Noah Zemel George Washington High School CO
Ellyott Siffring Resurrection Christian School CO
Nethra Naresh MOT Charter School DE
Maria Feliz Gil Colegio Bilingue New Horizons FL
Carlota Montas Colegio Bilingue New Horizons FL
Aditya Krishnan Lake Nona High School FL
Bryce Ownby Olympia High School FL
Nikhil Daniel Trinity Preparatory School FL
Sienna Reams Marist School GA
Emerson Moore Paideia School GA
Bradyn Bohnsack CAM High School IA
Roland Preston Des Moines Roosevelt High School IA
Christopher Chavez East High School IA
Karlie Flam East High School IA
Erik Ramirez East High School IA
Alison De Luna Hoover High School IA
Aidan Jones Hoover High School IA
Carson Guzman Norwalk High School IA
Ryan Peters Norwalk High School IA
Samuel Raymond Norwalk High School IA
Mustafa Tajammul College Prep School Of America IL
Samuel Emrick Glenwood High School IL
Georgette Gulley Glenwood High School IL
Mackenzie Jones Glenwood High School IL
Ana Swaner Glenwood High School IL
Oliver Wood-Morris Glenwood High School IL
Creighton Getting Naperville Central High School IL
Abhijay Salvi Westfield High School IN
Nicholas Connors Independence High School KS
Patrick Wong Lansing High School KS
Regan Giffin USD 439 Sedgwick High School KS
Jacob Heier USD 439 Sedgwick High School KS
Liam Mabry USD 439 Sedgwick High School KS
Morgan Olinger USD 439 Sedgwick High School KS
Ayaan Parikh Wichita Collegiate Upper School KS
Melvin Joseph Milton Academy MA
Pranathi Gadhanki Shrewsbury High School MA
Trishna Nikte Shrewsbury High School MA
Alexandra Brevde Waring School MA
Sean Kim Reservoir High School MD
Trevor Oakley Cape Elizabeth High School ME
Connor Smith Apple Valley High School MN
Luka Jacobi-Krohn Edina High School MN
Alex Schultze Edina High School MN
Madigan Webb Edina High School MN
Maya Haugen Orono High School MN
Garrett Flack Blue Springs South High School MO
Jaxson Marte Central High School MO
Silas Bloch Collegiate School/Med & Bioscience MO
Emily Matheny Collegiate School/Med & Bioscience MO
Kit Roesch Collegiate School/Med & Bioscience MO
Alia Barker Lebanon High School MO
Corisa Tapp Lebanon High School MO
Michelle Lin Marshall High School MO
James Petty Marshall High School MO
Brooklyn Eiserer Republic High School MO
Erick Zenteno Carolina Day School NC
Julianna Taylor Charlotte Catholic High School NC
Rocio Vega-Saenz Charlotte Catholic High School NC
Leeya Chaudhuri William G. Enloe High School NC
Sasha Caracalos Princeton High School NJ
Matthew Lameo Summit High School NJ
Anika Parthiban Thomas Edison EnergySmart Charter NJ
Uxue Sansinena Los Alamos High School NM
Jonathan Adler Coral Academy Of Science Las Vegas NV
Katharine Winer Elko High School NV
Seamus Breslin Chaminade High School NY
Charles Bruno Chaminade High School NY
Richard Colasonno Chaminade High School NY
Anthony Gabrielli Chaminade High School NY
David Jojan Chaminade High School NY
Benjamin Krittman Chaminade High School NY
Timothy Short Central Catholic High School OH
Grace Holbrook Columbus Academy OH
Stella Huang Columbus Academy OH
Gavin Hunter Columbus Academy OH
Bella Lee Columbus Academy OH
Arnav Nawani Columbus Academy OH
David Werstler Columbus Academy OH
Alec Pilati Hoover High School OH
Kip Anna Louisville Senior High School OH
Kaydence Aplin MacArthur High School OK
Liberty Brown MacArthur High School OK
Cybill Crawford MacArthur High School OK
Fynn Deuel MacArthur High School OK
Dylan Helvey MacArthur High School OK
Thalia Henry MacArthur High School OK
Scarlet Lovelace MacArthur High School OK
Caliel (CJ) Martinez-Perez MacArthur High School OK
Kelsie Roloff MacArthur High School OK
Kelly Lao CR North High School PA
Jane Leifer CR North High School PA
Krithi Ramnath CR North High School PA
AugustGrace Young CR North High School PA
Thomas Kohler Holy Ghost Prep PA
Liam Winkler Holy Ghost Prep PA
Siddharth Cheemalapati Newtown Middle School PA
Joyce Xiao Newtown Middle School PA
Alyce Zhang Newtown Middle School PA
Siya Jain North Allegheny High School PA
Zohaib Rahman North Allegheny High School PA
Tharun Sunthar North Allegheny High School PA
Ian Candy Brandon Valley High School SD
Hayden Brillhart Amarillo High School TX
Jessi Bullard Amarillo High School TX
Haylee Maya Antonian College Preparatory TX
Nicollette Arabie Buffalo High School TX
Oscar Henson, III Centerville High School TX
Ashna Maknojia Clear Falls High School TX
Ava Azua Dripping Springs High School TX
Colton De Los Santos Dripping Springs High School TX
Liam Ianiro Dripping Springs High School TX
Miriam Navarro Hallsville High School TX
Maristella Longoria James Madison High School TX
Abhishek Bhagat Jordan High School TX
Vibhu Kanna Jordan High School TX
Venkata Menta Jordan High School TX
Vedh Shetty Jordan High School TX
Alanna Powell McKinney High School TX
Venkata Yenuganti Newman Smith High School TX
Debora Ponce Oak Ridge High School TX
Ryan Whalen Ronald Reagan High School TX
Arnav Mehta Seven Lakes High School TX
Parth Nikumbh Seven Lakes High School TX
Luis Carvajal Picott Seven Lakes High School TX
Davis Veith Seven Lakes High School TX
Jason Zhao Seven Lakes High School TX
Shubham Agarwal Stephen F. Austin High School TX
Azan Ali Stephen F. Austin High School TX
Musa Ashraf Stephen F. Austin High School TX
Suhani Bhattad Stephen F. Austin High School TX
Prathik Bhimisetty Stephen F. Austin High School TX
Farah Chauhan Stephen F. Austin High School TX
Jacinto Cortina Stephen F. Austin High School TX
Abigail Dsouza Stephen F. Austin High School TX
Qasim Ghias Stephen F. Austin High School TX
Aarnav Gopinath Stephen F. Austin High School TX
Aayan Gul Stephen F. Austin High School TX
Muhammad Haris Stephen F. Austin High School TX
Nathaniel Hernandez Stephen F. Austin High School TX
Cyrus Jagtap Stephen F. Austin High School TX
Constanza Jongkind Stephen F. Austin High School TX
Sophie Joseph Stephen F. Austin High School TX
Aashi Kasotia Stephen F. Austin High School TX
Sierra Liendo Stephen F. Austin High School TX
Monish Reddy Madhu Stephen F. Austin High School TX
Joseph Martinta Stephen F. Austin High School TX
Lisa Mathew Stephen F. Austin High School TX
Arick Meng Stephen F. Austin High School TX
Charlie Ng Stephen F. Austin High School TX
Brian Nguyen Stephen F. Austin High School TX
Elena Nutzman Stephen F. Austin High School TX
Samar Parasmal Stephen F. Austin High School TX
Risha Patel Stephen F. Austin High School TX
Nidhi Patel Stephen F. Austin High School TX
Lauren Pham Stephen F. Austin High School TX
Maya Phan Stephen F. Austin High School TX
Maia Pinto Stephen F. Austin High School TX
Krish Prabhu Stephen F. Austin High School TX
Harshini Ravisankar Stephen F. Austin High School TX
Humal Raza Stephen F. Austin High School TX
Misha Saeed Stephen F. Austin High School TX
Syeda Sameera Stephen F. Austin High School TX
Shamyuktha Somalinga
Senthilkumar Stephen F. Austin High School TX
Aarav Shah Stephen F. Austin High School TX
Krish Shah Stephen F. Austin High School TX
Moksh Shah Stephen F. Austin High School TX
Arushi Sheth Stephen F. Austin High School TX
Lakshanya Solipuram Stephen F. Austin High School TX
Pavit Thakur Stephen F. Austin High School TX
Catherine Tra Stephen F. Austin High School TX
Lucas Wat Stephen F. Austin High School TX
Jacob Yan Stephen F. Austin High School TX
Ryan Yuan Stephen F. Austin High School TX
Emily Zeng Stephen F. Austin High School TX
Sahil Alam Woodlands College Park High School TX
Micah Clarke Woodlands College Park High School TX
Cameron Clifford Woodlands College Park High School TX
Layla Dudley Woodlands College Park High School TX
Aaron Fox Woodlands College Park High School TX
Reagan Gallon Woodlands College Park High School TX
James Gerhard Woodlands College Park High School TX
Jubaida Iftekhar Woodlands College Park High School TX
Sofia Leipnik Woodlands College Park High School TX
Meghana Mattegunta Woodlands College Park High School TX
Lillian Nixon Woodlands College Park High School TX
Dhruti Nukala Woodlands College Park High School TX
Natalia Pena Woodlands College Park High School TX
Shreyas Reddy Woodlands College Park High School TX
Katherine Rouswell Woodlands College Park High School TX
Catherine Hamisch Veterans Memorial High School TX
Sharmada Palakurthi W. B. Ray High School TX
Evan Danek Westchester Acad For Int’l Studies TX
Irath Habani Westchester Acad For Int’l Studies TX
Aiden Whitney Cyprus High School UT
Elizabeth Poole Hunter High School UT
Kate Monson Weber High School UT
Ronald Hart III Nysmith School VA
Adrian Atwater The Potomac School VA
Anaahita Kaashyap The Potomac School VA
Kasim Khapra The Potomac School VA
Sasha Leifer The Potomac School VA
Ethan Maher The Potomac School VA
Abigail Woldgebriel The Potomac School VA
Annie Lee Auburn Riverside High School WA
Olivia Cassie University High School WA
Ethan Zhang Marquette University High School WI
Nikhil Quintin Middleton High School WI
Isabella Chandik Neenah High School WI
Chloe Sieman Neenah High School WI
Abbilene Odell Cheyenne Central High School WY
To enter service points and more, log in to your NSDA account: www.speechanddebate.org/account
I cannot think of a better time to embrace the importance of a strong speech and debate program in your school’s curricular and extra-curricular opportunities. We are all surrounded by a neverending flow of information, logical fallacies, emotional arguments, personal opinions parading as facts, and the real struggle to listen and evaluate. The only way to combat this whirlwind, equip kids, and even model for adults is to educate through the lessons of speech and debate.
I have been so fortunate over the last few years to see the impact that investing in speech and debate can make. As a former arts administrator with Columbia Public Schools, I worked to ensure funding for supportive coaches, teachers, transportation, curriculum, and materials for all students who wanted to participate. I know the difference it makes—the energy and understanding created when peers, parents, and school administrators see students not only evaluate their own opinions but also research opposing viewpoints and come to new and more meaningful conclusions.
While as a school district we always had some moderate success with the extra-curricular activity of speech and debate, we saw real success and growth for students when we implemented a course of study that developed research skills, gave time for real student collaboration, and provided access to a full-time teacher. This investment, coupled with the extension of extra-curricular opportunities to compete against peers in other school districts and expand their exposure to different ideas, fueled a fire of student success and learning.
Competing and winning (along with the art of losing) is part of the fun, but it’s not the actual goal or outcome that inspires me the most. These brilliant future leaders and fellow community members are now better equipped to face a challenging world that will demand all their calm and well-crafted reasoning skills. They will inspire others to ask questions, dig deeper, and not fall into the cesspool of doom scrolling, bullying, and name-calling. I want to encourage you to keep investing in speech and debate and other programs that promote critical thinking, raise the public discourse, and empower and prepare our students to lead.
Most Sincerely,
James Melton James Melton, NBCT & SHRM-CP Associate Executive Director, Missouri State High School Activities Association
NSDA High School Administrator of the Year (2023)
Former Director of Fine Arts, Columbia Public Schools (2013 to 2023)
www.speechanddebate.org
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Americas High School, TX - Clase de 2017
2017 Estudiante del Año de NSDA y 2015 subcampéon de Dramatic Interpretation
