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
The Villiger tournament is traditionally the first tournament each year where novices and first-year students compete on a regional circuit.
Going to Villiger means that all of the kids on our team -especially our new kids - will feel early on in the year that their voice belongs on a national stage.
We are aiming to bring a record-number of students, though, and breakfast, lunch and dinner for a big group of kids adds up quickly. Your support will enable us to make sure that we can spend our time focusing on where kids are going to get their next argument and not their next meal.
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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