The 2022-2023 Speech and Debate Club is off to a great start!

In our first meeting, we familiarized students with the tenets of the club and what they can plan to expect this year. Today's meeting, however, focused on exposing the students to a variety of skills that they need for speech and debate: speaking, reading selectively, and thinking on your feet. We practiced these skills by having students compete in fun team activities such as the "Reading Relay" in which students speed walked toward their respective team captain and read either a tongue twister or highlighted excerpt from a debate speech. The first team to have all members read and sit down won and earned 5 points! 

Video by Wisdom Ufondu '23

Another activity the students competed in was the "Rebuttal Race" in which students would sign on to BuzzIn.live in their respective teams and buzz in to offer an argument in support of a topic displayed on the screen. Then, the buzzers would reopen and allow students to offer a counterargument to the last speaker; every successful argument and rebuttal earned that team a point.

At the end of the activities, the team with the most points was awarded a family-size pack of double-stuffed Oreos!

Students can look forward to more fun activities to practice speaking and debating skills. If anyone is interested in getting involved, we meet during activity 2 in the freshman-sophomore lounge!