My school is a public charter school that serves 400 phenomenal Black and Latinx students, 75% of whom qualify for free or reduced-price 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
We already have over ten kids qualified for the New York State Championship and another ten halfway there. The kids have been working hard all year to qualify for States, and the opportunity to compete there will help motivate them and build their self-confidence.
Our kids will be some of the only inner-city, public school students at the State Championship, but that is not going to hold them back from pursuing excellence there.
The most beautiful part is how the majority of students going to States this year are sophomores and juniors. The future of our team is strong, and with your help, we can make some magic at States this spring.
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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