As the great Abraham Lincoln once said about Bishop Kelly, “This nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom and that government of the people, by the people, and for the people, shall not perish from the earth.” BK has lots to offer for its “people.” Whether it be with sports, extracurriculars, or other activities, students may be a bit overwhelmed by all that the school has to offer. So, let’s take a look at one of these activities, speech and debate.
The National Speech and Debate Association aims to “connect, support, and inspire a diverse community committed to empowering students.” With seventeen recognized speech events and seven recognized forms of debate, the NSDA works toward bringing people together of all different backgrounds, grade levels, and interests; and frankly, it has done a great job at doing just that. With this being said, let’s look at the impact that speech and debate have had on students at BK.
Maggie Avey, a senior captain of the team, thinks that participating in speech and debate has done lots of positive things for her life. She believes that speech and debate teach young adults to “efficiently articulate their thoughts,” and develop their compassion by enabling people to “understand all sides of an issue and to walk in someone else’s shoes.” Maggie says that her true job as team captain is to “involve people, make connections and challenge my teammates to step out of their comfort zones,” which is why the team acts as “a very tight knit community.” Maggie also participates in Congressional Debate and enjoys it because she gets “to pretend to be a US congress-person for a day,” adding that “Congress competitors are smart, witty, and fun to be around.”
Speech captain, Abi Severance, speaks to the importance of speech and debate in terms of people’s futures. “I believe that people who can speak effectively get further in life. It’s the most common fear in the world, so understandably it’s difficult…but it’s important to be able to effectively demonstrate your ideas and advocate for yourself.” Speech and debate is great for people who want to further their conversational skills. Communication is necessary for all people, so developing these skills early on is highly beneficial. Don’t worry, though, not everything in speech and debate must be taken so seriously. Abi participates in an event called radio broadcasting, she says that “no other event is as fun and relatively laid back as radio,” making it a perfect event for newcomers.
Public Forum Debate, the only form of debate that allows competitors to partner-up, is an evidence based form of debate that focuses particularly on topics that are recent and highly relevant. For example, topics may be geared towards political issues, such as competition between China, Russia, and the US, or more economically based, dealing with agreements like NAFTA. Gabe Torkelson thinks that this is what makes public forum debate so interesting. “I think it’s important to discuss complex topics because it allows us to get a stronger grasp on global topics that are currently going on.” He thinks that PF “allows people to be more open minded,” but he especially enjoys it because the “topics are diversified between global and domestic questions,” giving competitors the opportunity to expand their knowledge of things going on in the US, and also across the globe.
Speech and debate doesn’t just improve your conversational skills, but it can actually help out in other aspects of life. Tucker Gratton thinks that it has had a positive impact on him academically. “It’s definitely improved my ability to research and think on the fly. That has moved over to timed writes and being able to communicate.” He thinks that one of the biggest lessons the activity has taught him is that “no matter how smart or long you’ve thought about something, there is always a different approach that you won’t have considered.” He also competes in After Dinner Speaking, an event in which comedy is used to highlight problems in society. Tucker says that “ADS gives me an opportunity to use satire to hit on real issues. It’s a fun event while still having an underlying meaning.”
Mullai Subramaniyan, a first-year member of the team, looks forward to her future in speech and debate. “It has given me the opportunity to meet others and has improved both my knowledge of world events and my public speaking skills. I’m looking forward to meeting other kids who will enjoy speech and debate as well.” Mullai is the only freshman on the team and has had lots of success thus far. Anybody can join the team regardless of prior experience or grade-level, making it perfect for anybody who has interest in the activity.
At the end of the day, speech and debate is a great way for students to participate in a meaningful, interesting, and important extracurricular activity.
The Bishop Kelly Newspaper 