why speech & debate?
"If I were to choose one factor – and I’d include in that even high school grades – in picking a student who will excel in college and will be admitted to a better college, it would be high school forensics (speech) and debate."
John Sexton
President Emeritus
New York University
Supercharges Academic Growth
Reinforces Classroom Learning
Supercharges Academic Growth
The competitive nature of the activity means that students who would otherwise tune out and underachieve suddenly find themselves challenged to keep up. Speech and debate students are significantly more likely than their socioeconomic peers to excel in school and to matriculate to college and graduate school. Some special ed students have even had their reading scores go up 3 grade levels in one semester.
Top Tier College Admissions
Reinforces Classroom Learning
Supercharges Academic Growth
A late 1990s Wall Street Journal study of top tier college admissions found that state and national award winners in speech and debate competition were 22-30% more likely to be admitted to a top tier college compared to the general applicant pool, while high school debate team captains were 60% more likely to be admitted. Even students who simply join the speech and debate team are 4% more likely to be admitted.
Reinforces Classroom Learning
Reinforces Classroom Learning
Social and Emotional Development
Speech and debate competition often makes the liberal arts side of the curriculum easy for students because they are challenged at a much deeper level. They read more, think more, listen more, and advocate more than the traditional classroom provides for. The same student who might give 4-5 speeches in one semester will give twice as many at one competition, with a level of refinement and research not usually seen until graduate school.
Social and Emotional Development
Social and Emotional Development
Social and Emotional Development
Being a teenager is hard for everyone, and during those difficult adolescent years, speech and debate gives kids a peer group in which it’s cool to be smart, get good grades, and be successful in life. When mom and dad don’t know anything, the teens who might not find a home on a sports team or in the marching band can find a family to counter a narrow focus on grades and the challenges of endless technology use, drinking, partying, drugs, and the like.
Citizenship in a Democracy
Social and Emotional Development
And Most Importantly, it's Fun!
The foundations of our American way of life lie in the town hall meetings of colonial New England. Unlike today’s mainstream political discourse in which each half of the country hates the other half, students in speech and debate rounds learn from each other’s perspectives and how to wrestle not only with the evidence presented in round, but with the timeless underlying questions that shape western civilization and the challenges of living in a diverse, multicultural society.
And Most Importantly, it's Fun!
Social and Emotional Development
And Most Importantly, it's Fun!
Speech and debate students not only explore their inner thoughts and challenge themselves academically, they do so in a fun environment where they meet students from all across the world and compete at tournaments at leading universities. Pizza, snacks, holiday parties, etc. all give students a fun, second family with friendships and memories that they cherish for the rest of their lives.