On November 16th and 17th, the ACP Speech and Debate team attended the Mesquite Watertower tournament. The fantastic orators performed in front of multitudes of judges, and gave everything they had to their performances. Taking 4th overall, the award winners performed as follows:

• 2nd– Novice Lincoln Douglas Debate – Zoe Soderquist
• 4th– Duet Acting – Nicole Lee and Orchee Syed
• 5th– Informative Speech – Sharmila Nimbkar
• 6th– Informative Speech – Nicole Lee
• 6th– Original Oratory – Yoojin Han
• 6th– Extemporaneous Speech – Parsa Amini
• 6th– Impromptu Speech – Sebastian Javadpoor

Placing 4th as part of her duet acting group, Orchee Syed met with me to discuss the team performance.

Q: What can you attribute most to a talented orator?

A: The effort and time he or she puts into writing, memorizing, and performing the piece. Practice and repetition are the most important aspects in regards to growth as a speaker.

Q: How important is the concept of team bonding and chemistry in speech and debate?

A: It is super important. A lot of clubs and teams call themselves families, but we really do embody that claim. We spend so much time together and work and support one another so much; it is impossible not to grow close. Even with a substantially larger team, we’ve bonded surprisingly well.

Q: What award did the speech and debate team last win?

A: We took 4th at the last tournament (Mesquite) in the sweepstakes as a team.

Q: What can you say to people interested in speech and debate?

A: You put in what you get out. It’s an awful lot of work, but it’s an awful lot of reward, too.

Q: How did the team prepare for the last tournament?

A: Practice runs, multiple sessions of going over the material we were going to use, and team sessions helped to iron out any issues with the topic. The biggest aid to our improvement is working to improve as a team.

Speech and Debate is one of the most versatile and useful clubs on this campus. From broadening orating experience, to building a foundation of intelligent discourse and complex, rational thought, this team has much to offer. Aside from the function of the club, the team is one of the closest knit families on this campus! Speech and Debate offers opportunities for those who are not only interested in discourse and argumentation, but performance itself. For more information, contact group leader Mr. Rumsey at [email protected]!