My school is a public charter school that serves 400 phenomenal Black and Latino students, 75% of whom qualify for free or reduced lunch.
Our Speech & Debate Team provides students who are historically underrepresented in Speech & Debate with the opportunities to compete both locally and nationally in public speaking and debating.
Even though it was only our third year having a speech team, over 25 active members were extremely successful at local, regional, and national competitions this past year. We have had students advance to elimination rounds all around the country including at Yale, Princeton, Columbia, UPenn, Harvard, and Emory. We brought a record sixteen students to the State Championship last April and three kids to Nationals last year and look forward to building our program even further this year.
My Project
This particular tournament is a really important one for our team: it's the Grand National Qualifier. The top six students in every category will qualify for the National Catholic Forensics League National Championship. Two years ago, we qualified our first two students and last year, we qualified three.
Our top students are working hard this year to qualify for the National Championship, and it all comes down to this one tournament!
Your support will enable us to support these kids as they compete in this top-notch competition for one of the coveted qualifications. Keep your fingers crossed for all of them!
More than half of students from low‑income households
Data about students' economic need comes from the National Center for Education Statistics, via our partners at MDR Education. Learn more
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